Amourshipping : Alone
by QuirkQuartz
Summary: The Blackwoods forest is a forest full of eerie mystery, rumours, and superstition. Going through the forest isn't recommended by anyone. The people who do enter... Never come out the same. And that's if they come out at all. Amourshipping, Ash X Serena, AASL,
1. Chapter 1: The forest

Blackwoods Forest. The largest forest in the entire Kalos region, and the entire continent for that matter. It got its ominous name from the dark brown tree trunks that acted as the base of the trees. A dark brown colour, bordering black. The lush, tall treetops created a sea of green from the air, and on the ground, a maze of wood, forest and brush. The forest spanned so large, that even if people followed the path exactly, it could take them weeks to get out. It spanned nearly 100 miles, and that was from the shortest ends, going in a straight line, from point A to point B. It was a nature preserve, so logging was illegal. It was established very rigorously, with people watching to make certain that loggers couldn't enter the forest miles around it, not even letting them get within eyesight of the place. However, travellers often found themselves here without ever seeing an anti-logger person, as if only the loggers could see these defenders of the forest.

The forest was surrounded in myths and legends. Some said they saw glowing lights from atop the trees, some claimed they saw monsters, and others claimed they saw legendary and rare Pokemon, like Shaymin and Darkrai, make their homes here. It wasn't actually that hard to believe. The forest was so thick, so dense, and, at night, so dark, it would camouflage anything and anyone in it, surrounding them in a sea of blackness, blind those who hadn't evolved to pierce such darkness. Once night fell, you were in the dark, quite literally. You would see absolutely nothing without an external source of light, until the Sun rose again. It would have made the perfect hidden secret base. And it made the ideal home for Pokémon that didn't want to be found.

Other rumours were quite... Eerie. People often went missing in the woods, and showed up later, traumatised, some suffering from as serious conditions as, to give only one example, Post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Many claimed the forest was a living, breathing, sentient being, that lead people away from the paths they walked, and if they followed it, only the true horrors of the forest would be made known to them.

When asked what these horrors where, their answers were even more disturbing.

"We can't tell you." They would say. Monotoned, and whispered. "They're watching us. They've always been watching us."

What was disturbing was that every individual that every single individual who ended up like this always said that when asked. As if it was a script, and they had all rehearsed this script, religiously.

Many people dismissed it as craziness, that due to the darkness of the forests, it had affected their minds. Indeed, many made recoveries, convinced themselves that it had all been in their minds. But the stories and legends that these events created always haunted the region. Fantasies or not, they hung over the forest, daring those who were brave enough, fearless enough, or stupid enough to enter the belly of the beast, ready to devour anyone who did step foot into this empire of nature.

Many said the forest should be left alone, that human presence was only a negative point, to the sanctity of the Pokémon living their peacefully, and the risks to human life. However, the forest was still open to the public to travel through, but it was at their own risk. The vast majority of trainers avoided it like the plague. Only 1 trainer in every 100,000 would dare enter.

Ash stood at the entrance to this mighty forest. He had to admit, it was certainly impressive. It spanned through several regions, including Kalos's neighbours. Defending it, and preserving the rich ecosystem it sustained had become a matter of inter-regional co-operation. And they had been, so far, successful. Ash had suggested they trek through this monster. It was a shortcut to his next gym battle. Should they get through without incident, it would save them weeks, perhaps months of travel time. And it would certainly throw the ever present, ever annoying, ever infuriating and ever frustratingly stupid Team Rocket off their trail for a while, and with any luck, they'd be chased off by a swarm of Combee or something.

"Ash, I don't know about this..." Serena, his blonde, short haired and blue eye companion stated meekly. She had her hands held together, fingers inter-winded into one big fist, like she was praying. It was a nervous habit she had when either nervous or scared. The hat she wore seemed to sink further down her head, to her eyebrows, and her red over-vest was swaying in the light wind.

Serena had feelings for Ash, feelings of the romantic nature, and it wasn't much of a secret anymore. People had caught on. Except, of course, for the dense Ash Ketchum himself, the one person Serena wanted to know. What she didn't reveal to anyone, however, was how uncomfortable forests made her. In a group, she could manage it, provided the forest was small. Heck, She enjoyed it, but the rumours surrounding this forest, that said it was alive, that it would lead people down the wrong path with malicious intent, preying on the weak and meek minded re-awakened the sheer terror she felt in the middle of the woods.

Serena's general discomfort around forests came from her traumatic experience in the woods during summer camp in the Kanto region. But it was there she met Ash, so she didn't completely despise the memories. Still, they were traumatic enough to have left a mark on her psychological mindset, that resulted in her hylophobia ; her fear of the forests.

"Relax, Serena." Ash said, grinning at the tall trees, placing his hand on the dark tree bark. "We'll be fine if we stick to the paths."

Clemont, the resident scientist / gym leader, spoke in agreement. "This forest had been surveyed and checked hundreds of times. Thanks to rigorous aerial reconnaissance, and multitudes of surveys scourging the pathways, the path to the next gym is marked very clearly. It should be impossible to miss." Clemont was a person of science. Though that could be to compensate for the fact he had a more crippling fear of the supernatural more than anyone in the group. He threw himself into the worlds of technology and scientific progression, and acted as the voice of logical reason for the group, though often times, he spoke in a panicked voice, and his sweat starting to soak his blue overalls, especially when dealing with the supernatural. He adjusted his circular spectacles when investigating the dark bark on the trees. "These trees are fascinating. What causes them to turn this dark? Why are they this colour? Scientists from Kalos and all its neighbours have been trying to come up with the answer to that question in one big, organised and co-operated investigation, and none of them can figure out the answer..."

Serena shifted her posture. She still felt unsafe, heading into the Blackwood forest. She had no issue with admitting she had hylophobia... To herself. She shuddered and gulped, looking at this behemoth. Scared of a forest? Scared of some trees? How pathetic would she look in front of Ash if he knew?...

"You aren't scaaaaaaared, are you Serena?" Bonnie, Clemonts younger sibling, and Serena's little sister figure asked, in a loud, half mocking tone. Bonnie was younger than everyone else by over 10 years, but she certainly acted older than her age. She looked like Clemont, but that was to be expected. Blond hair, and blue eyes, only she didn't require glasses, and didn't wear a disturbingly warm overall. She claimed she tried it once, however, and then proceeded to claim she felt like she was on fire. She told everyone she was certain Clemont had a condition in which he was nearly always cold, but Clemont had shut that down. That was the kind of person Bonnie was. The innocent, excitable and gossipy type. Serena considered Bonnie to be the little sister she never had, but the bad part of that was that now she really was acting like the little sister she never had. She had recently learnt of her feeling for Ash, and Bonnie hadn't even let Serena have a second of peace afterwards, teasing her continuously, and causing general awkwardness for her. It frustrated Serena to no end, and she had to always watch her words when around Bonnie. It had become like dealing with Miette on a regular basis. At this point, Serena wasn't completely sure if she preferred dealing with Bonnie like this, or really having to deal with Miette on a regular basis.

"Huh?!" Serena shot up at her accusations, turning to Bonnie, and now standing tall, her hands in fists, and her fists on her hips. "Scared of a forest?! Are you kidding me? Of all the things to be scared of, Bonnie!" Serena managed to turn the teasing back onto Bonnie, now speaking in a sisterly, condescending tone. "If you're scared Bonnie, it's okay, but don't try and get other people to say they're scared to make you feel better, we'll protect you, don't worry."

"I'm not scared of anything!" Bonnie yelled back with a laugh. She made sure her laugh was loud and exaggerated it a bit, trying to but in a fearless front.

"Is that right, Bonnie?" Ash asked, turning back. His brown eyes, the only person in the group without blue eyes, glancing at Bonnie and Serena as they teased each other. His messy hair was barely being contained by his hat, and he had his pockets in his blue jacket. Pikachu, his Pokémon partner and best friend, perched atop his right shoulder, and his bag straps were on his left shoulder. He was also the only person in the group who had no qualms whatsoever about entering the forest. He grinned at the two females, having their little friendly spat. "If I recall, you're scared of Clemont making veggies for meal."

"That because I don't like veggies!" Bonnie yelled at Ash. "That's completely different!"

Ash shook his head, amused, and turned back to the forest. He had to admit, the forest looked incredibly thick. He was amazed a natural phenomenon like this had remained untouched by humans hands for thousands of years, and that to this day, was still protected. He thought of all the rare Pokémon inside. There were no laws against capturing Pokémon in the forest. He grinned, hoping to capture something good, something strong. Preferably something to help in his next gym match. He was just a few badges away from the Kalos League.

"Still..." Serena said, quietly. "Are we sure it's safe? I mean, it might be smarter to just go around the forest. You can't put a price on safety, can you?"

"It's perfectly safe, Serena." Clemont said, trying to reassure the anxious blonde to his right. "I told you, the pathway is marked."

"But... But what about the rumours that the forest leads you he wrong way to do horrible things to you?" Serena asked, in an almost panicked state. "What if the forest leads us into a clearing where all the monsters in the forest come to eat us?!" She then promptly clapped her hands onto her mouth. She had a bad habit of saying ridiculous things in the face of the supernatural.

Clemont laughed. "You don't believe those rumours, do you?"

"Well... You never know, right?" Serena defended her words.

Clemont shook his head, closing his eyes, and put on a voice that walk half condescending, half serious. "There's no such thing as a living forest. Trees are only plants. They don't have any intelligence or any way to 'lead' someone astray. And even if they did, why would they? No, the rumours surrounding the Blackwood forest are the result of careless people straying off the trail, and getting lost in the darkness, which has a negative effect on the human mind, causing them to hallucinate. Their hallucinations made them perceive reality differently, and thus, the rumours surrounding this forest began to surface."

"Even if the rumours are true, they only ever happened to people who came here on their own, right?" Ash asked Clemont. Clemont nodded at him. Ash turned back to Serena. "We'll look after each other. You don't need to worry, Serena."

Serena smiled meekly and sighed. She was going into this forest, regardless of if she wanted to or not, wasn't she?

* * *

The group had checked they had enough food, water, and other essentials for an estimated week and a half travel through the wilderness. Light was an essential. If they got lost in the dark, they were finished. A few spare compasses. The exit was to the North West of where they were right now. They could follow the compass find their way out if they had to. Serena took one reluctantly, praying she wouldn't need it.

Once all their preparations were complete, the group stood at the entrance to the forest. A large bulletin sign, made of wood, was there. It had been carved into, with a knife.

ALL WHO ENTER HERE DO SO AT THEIR OWN RISK. LOGGING, LITTERING, DAMAGE TO THE FOREST, DAMAGING AND DESTROYING THE HOMES OF THE POKÉMON HERE ARE ALL STRICTLY PROHIBITED. ANYONE FOUND GUILTY OF THESE CRIMES WILL BE PUNISHED TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW. IT IS VERY STRONGLY RECOMMENDED THAT YOU FOLLOW THE PATHWAYS MARKED. FAILURE TO DO SO MAY RESULT IN TERRIBLE INJURY, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY.

\- The Inter-regional defence force.

It served as an eerie reminded that they were going into a place considered haunted, and to some, even sacred. Serena gulped. She really didn't want to do this. At all. She felt her skin crawl, and blood run cold. But above all, she didn't want to be separated from Ash. That was the only reason she was doing this.

"Oooooh..." She whimpered silently to herself. She pulled out a Pokèball, and released her Pokémon inside. "Pancham, come on out." He showing off Pancham appeared in front of her in a dazzling light that lit up the surrounding area temporarily. Serena picked up Pancham and held it like a teddy bear for comfort. Pancham expressed some distaste for this, but didn't try and escape it.

"You ready?" Ash asked his female traveling companion. He placed a hand on her shoulder. He had come up from behind, so the sudden feeling in her shoulder caused her to jump, but she quickly relaxed when she realised it was her crush. Now her heart was just beating harder.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine." Serena said, lying through her teeth. She was anything but fine.

"We're gonna be in there for a while, but it'll be worth it." Ash smiled. "I'll be closer to my next gym battle, and you'll be closer to your next showcase, with time to spare."

Serena nodded. "I suppose..."

Ash put his hand on her shoulder again. This time, Serena was able to experience the warmth of his hands. It gave her a comfort. A real sense of comfort. "We'll be fine, Serena. I promise you, nothing's gonna go wrong while we're in there."

Serena longed for more comfort like this. It would make this entire trip worth it. But she simply nodded, agreeing with Ash. "We'll look out for each other, won't we?"

"Yep." Ash grinned, happy that Serena seemed more comfortable with the idea of this trip. Pikachu hopped onto Serena's shoulder, comforting Serena in his own way, nuzzling her check, and then hopping back to Ash. Serena managed to smile at the adorable little yellow mouse Pokémon.

"Okay, we're fine on food and water. We've got spare flashlights and batteries, and if that fails, we have enough electric types between us to recharge the batteries manually, and fire types to light up the area surrounding us. We should be okay." Clemont said, passing Ash his bag. He had filled it up with his own set of essentials. Just as a precaution, in the unlikely event of separation. He had already done the same for Bonnie and Serena. He looked into the forest, fighting back his inner voice, telling him to back out now too. "Are we all ready to go?"

Bonnie was completely careless. She was skipping around, waiting for the call to go, chased by her Dedenne. "Ready!"

Her Dedenne also chipped in. "Nene, nene!"

"I'm ready." Ash said with a smile, throwing his backpack back onto his back.

Pikachu nodded. "Pika!"

Serena sighed. "Ready as I'm ever going to be I guess."

Her Pancham was much more enthusiastic than her. Punching it's two paws into the sky. "Cham, Pancham!"

"Well, let's get to it!"

* * *

In the forest, Serena couldn't shake the feeling she was being watched. The ominous feeling that a pair or two of eyes were watching you from the shadows, calculating your every move, waiting to strike, followed her like a Venomoth to the light. She felt paranoid and uncomfortable.

What she had to admit, though, was the forest was quite beautiful on the inside. The wildlife was varied and vivid, wild Spinarak, Ariados, Caterpie, Weedle, Kakuna, Scatterbug, Tangela, Bellsprout, Parasect, Tangrowth, Beedrill, Yanmega, Ninjask and more, all inhabited the nooks and crannies of the Blackwood forest, and they all seemed very tame Pokémon, not fearing humans in the slightest, but watching them in curiosity. It wasn't every day that they saw humans, so some of them felt like they were watching aliens like Deoxys walk through their homes.

Serena had to concede the fact, she could easily understand why so many different regions co-operated to protect this natural treasure chest. A few Rattata scurried past her feet. She felt at ease next to Ash. Somehow, he made her feel safe, just by being close to her. Scooting closer to him every few seconds, so no one would notice until she was right next to him, she increased the length of her strides a few centimetres every few seconds, until she found herself happily alongside Ash.

Still, this forest creeped her out. Her hylophobia didn't disappear, just subsided a bit while she was near Ash. It never disappeared completely. She couldn't wait to finally escape this place. Though it had just begun. They hadn't even been in here for three hours. A depressing thought. It felt like days to Serena.

The forest path winded further still, taking them further and further away from civilisation. The deeper they went, the thicker the trees and their density became.

Darkness fell very quickly in the forest, much to Ash's chagrin. "How is it already night time?" He fumbled around until he found a flashlight, which he then turned on, making the pathway clearer. It wasn't so dark that they couldn't see, but a flashlight helped.

"We should set up camp for the night." Clemont suggested. "We really don't want to get caught out here in the dark." He glanced around the area, and moving Bonnie closer to him. So she didn't get lost, of course.

Serena agreed. She'd feel safer in a sleeping bag. She hoped.

* * *

Well everyone, this is my next project. Alone is gonna be a mystery, supernatural and horror type deal mixed into one if I can. I'm trying to make this one stand out amongst to my stories, so here's hoping you like this.

I have a general idea of how this story will play out, but I'm still in the flexible stages of writing. This one is going to be fundamentally different to what I've written In The past, and that's the fact I'm going complete fan fiction in this. You'll notice in my other stories I aim to go for stories that I deem are potentially possible. In this one, I seriously doubt this would ever happen, but even so, I'm going to write how the characters would be written if it were an actual episode. One .day Off, I wrote how I would introduce Amourshipping if it became cannon, and in Looks Don't Matter, I went for the inner turmoil Serena feels for Ash regularly. In this, it's a much more... Dramatic story, shall we say. Expect up to Seven chapters of this story at the minimum, though I'll likely end it on Ten, due to my OCD. I like things to end on good numbers. Like 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 25or 30, ect. (That's why I made One Day Off 30 Chapters long.) Anything else just bugs me.

The plot may be predictable. It might not be. Who knows. Depends on how your mind works. To me, If I were reading what I'm going to put on to paper from an outside perspective, I'd expect something a bit more... Relevant, should we say. I'm looking forward to getting this one up for you all, guys.

Requests are still open for you all who want one. If I like your idea, I'll write it into a story, so go nuts. Amourshipping ones please, though I will accept Pearlshipping in a pinch. (I really should change my name.) Just know I'll only write Pearlshipping when I'm completely burned out of Amourshipping for a bit, so you might be waiting a while. I MAY also accept other Shippings I like. Usually include NaLi (Natsu X Lisanna), Kirito X Asuna, Edwin (Edward Elric X Winry), and a few others. Heck, in an absolute pinch, I can go yuri, Sapphirepealshipping and Botiqueshipping. Lemons on these... I don't know. Turns out I have an affinity for writing lemons. How I learned that, don't ask, and do I want that on the Internet? I have no idea. This is pretty subject to survey to be honest. So, go ahead and ask, and I'll see what I can do with your idea. Just remember that Amourshipping takes complete priority to me.

As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you did, leave a review down for me, and follow the story to find out what happens next. Follow and fave me if you like, it helps out a real lot guys, I do appreciate it. Makes me feel like I'm not wasting my time writing these, and let's me know you appreciate and enjoy what I do, which is always awesome motivation. As always, I will see you in the next chapter of whatever I do indeed decide to do next. See ya!

For more Amourshipping, and reminders when I update chapters here, come follow me on Tumblr - (gamingempire)

If you enjoy gaming, Pokémon, commentary, and what to help me get off the ground running on YouTube, come subscribe to my YouTube channel - TheGamingEmpire. (Look for several characters in the white and grey lightning Banner, Naruto, Pikachu, and a Pokemon OC trainer, ect. I do Ark and right now. I'd give you a link, but apparently hates those. Content will renew as soon as I'm back in England and I've settled in again, so, about the 7th of August)


	2. Chapter 2: The encounter

Striking the side of the box several times before finally getting a spark, which set the match alight, Ash smiled in satisfaction, before tossing the match into the pile of dry sticks, dead grass and piles of larger logs, which caught fire, finally. The fire quickly engulfed the pile of flammable materials the group had collected, quickly illuminating the area, with a bonus of keeping them all warm. Ash sighed happily and sat on his seat next to Serena.

"Finally, that took way longer than it should have." Ash said with a sigh.

Pikachu scratched it's head sheepishly, realising his trainers density. "Pika pika..."

Clemont grinned. "It would have helped if you hit it the right way to begin with, Ash."

Serena giggled at Ash's denseness, passing Clemont a box of seasonings and cookery. He took them swiftly, and began inspecting which spices he could use in the camps meal. He took a staff full of pepper and dashed the cooking stew with it.

Tents, equipment, edibles and now, a fantastic fire, illuminating the whole campsite for them, the four travellers and their Pokemon finally found time to relax, feeling at ease now that the darkness had been lifted. It was the picture of a perfect campsite, ones that the group had had hundreds of times on this journey. The sites of countless practice battles, and scary stories that freaked out Serena in particular. Their only difference was their surroundings, and although forests weren't an uncommon site for camping, this one in particular felt eerie, but in a large group, with a light source, it somewhat diminished the intimidating presence of the trees. They would see wild Pokemon come occasionally, investigating the light source, before reporting it back to their friends.

"We didn't make a lot of progress through the forest today, did we?" Serena asked, looking at the map. The map was on an A3 piece of paper, and the forest took up about 60cm of the paper. On the routes, they made a pencil marking of their progress, using landmarks and the likes to track their progress. So far, they weren't even 1% into the forest tracks. Serena shuddered. She didn't like that one bit.

"Well, we've only had about three hours worth of traveling time today." Ash said, throwing another stick Into the fire, grinning as it caught fire.

"And we started a lot later in the day than we should have. In all honesty, we shouldn't have started today, but I didn't think it would get so dark so fast..." Clemont said, stirring the stew he was cooking slowly as he explained his actions. He felt a twang of shame hit him right in his pride.

Bonnie had already fallen asleep, tired from the trip. It was hard to explain, but something always felt like it was draining your energy as you walked. Ash was drowsy we than normal, as was Serena, and Clemont. Bonnie didn't even want to eat, she was so exhausted. She had fallen asleep the split second her head hit the pillow. Clemont just didn't have the heart to wake her up.

"How much longer Clemont? I'm dying, here." Ash moaned, his hands already around his stomach, trying to suppress the grumbles it made. It made Serena giggle at how embarrassed it seemed to make him.

"Uh, about another 15 minutes, I think. If you look for some more firewood, that might speed things up." Clemont said, adding some more seasoning, this time salt, to the stew. "It just needs to heat up anyway."

Ash stood up, glancing around the forest area. How hard could finding more firewood be? They had found mountains of the stuff before. "Got it." He said with a grin, reaching out, grabbing a flashlight and flicking it on, heading towards the darkness. Pikachu followed behind him, hopping onto his shoulder, off to help his trainer.

"Ash!"

Serena called out Ash's name, half reaching towards him, and half restraining herself from grabbing his jacket. The truth was she didn't want him to go. The only real reason she was coping so well was that he was close by. But then again, she couldn't tell him that. Her paranoia of what he'd think of her should he learn she had a phobia of trees of all things kept her in check.

Ash turned to Serena, with an eyebrow raised. "Yeah Serena? What's up?"

Serena bit her tongue, thinking quickly what to do, what to say. "Um... Be careful." She took her raised hand out, and made it into a fist, covering her mouth with it, biting the tip of her thumb sharply. It wasn't sharp enough or precise enough to tear off any skin, or cause her and bleeding, but it was a sort of release, giving her something other than her phobia to focus on.

Ash smiled at her with reassurance. "Don't worry, Serena. It's gonna be fine." With that, he flicked on the flashlight again, and walked, swallowed up in the darkness. Serena bit her thumb harder. Somehow, in a pretty big way, at least to Serena, the camp seemed a lot less bright.

* * *

Holding the flashlights light away from his thumb, so his thumb faced his body as he held it, and having his arm at about an 80 degrees angle to his upper arm, Ash scouted the ground for firewood, or anything that could burn, Pikachu perched on his shoulder. The bountiful harvest of dead grass and twigs seemed to have been reaped, leaving very little left for him. He found a small bundle, and knelt down to feel for it.

"Damp." He said to himself, with an irritated sigh. "How is that though? It hasn't rained once all day, has it?" He contemplated it for a few moments, before deciding he didn't care enough to think of it too much, and carried on his way heading further away from the camp. When he looked back, he could still see the light from his campsite, occasionally seeing the familiar silhouettes of Hawlucha and Noibat, practicing flying once again.

Ash went a bit deeper into the forest, hoping to find dry firewood further in. He was correct, in fact, and had a few sticks and logs in his arms. A few piles of dead grass also revealed themselves to him. He gave those to Pikachu to hold onto. "Here, buddy, hold onto that for me."

Ash grinned. He could practically taste that stew already. He wanted to get a couple of logs more, thinking that hopefully that would increase how much less time it would take for the stew to be ready. He was looking forward to getting back to his campsite, surrounded by his friends and Pokemon.

Speaking of friends... Serena seemed worried. He found himself contemplating about that a fair amount of the time he was away. Curiosity was building itself up in him as he wondered more and more. Now that he thought about it, he began to remember a lot of times she had seemed more concerned about him than anyone else, but he had never had time to focus on it. He had always been in the heat of battle, or in danger, too much to notice her concern about him clearly. And now, looking back, that same motivation he felt in the heat of battle always seemed to come from her. He wondered, why was that? Was there something a bit deeper at play here than just friendly concern?...

Ash gently hit the side of his head with his flashlight. "I'm over thinking things." He said to himself. Pikachu expressed some concern, but Ash brushed it off, saying he was just thinking about some stuff, before noticing a dry looking log just a bit to the left.

He knelt down and checked it. It was indeed dry, which was all Ash needed. He swiftly picked up the surprisingly large log, and added it to his pile, now being carried in both hands, and he positioned the flashlight between logs so he could see where he was going, he grinned to himself. This log was large enough for three of the smaller logs he had been gathering.

Picking himself up, and ready to turn away, he saw it.

Red, perching eyes.

They glared at him from the shrubbery, piercing the darkness around him. From nowhere, a light, white mist surrounded Ash, enveloping him in a swirl of confusion. Dark enough to feel like he was in pitch darkness, and light enough so he could see he the mist and the eyes, Ash stared back at them, sweat trickling from his brow. A hundred questions suddenly entered his head, as he stood there, staring down these mysterious red lights.

"What's going on?..." Ash said, whispering to the red gleams in the night darkness. "I... I can't move my body..." His body felt paralysed, unable to move his hands or feet even a little, aside from speaking, of course. Pikachu voiced Ash couldn't stare anywhere else but these red, terrifying eyes even if he wanted to. He had no choice. That's when it hit Ash. "Whatever you are... You're using a move, aren't you? Glare, Mean Look, or something, right?" He then glanced at the most around him. "And this is just the move Mist, right?"

Not even a Kricketot made a sound as Ash confronted this red intruder. The intruder made no noise, no movements. It's eyes though, seemed to go redder. Much redder. The brighter the red became, the more it felt like, to Ash, the stare was trying to see into his very soul. His teeth gritted, and sweat trickled down his face. He had first, honest to goodness, expected a monster to be the cause of this, but it was a person and / or a Pokémon. That relaxed Ash, but he was still in danger, arguably, depending on the red eyes intruders mood. "What... Do you want?"

A pin could break up the near soundless interaction between the two. Ash felt like he was loosing his mind, just waiting for something to break the interaction, anything to stop this crippling terror. And there was no other word for it. Ash was freaked the hell out. He was quite frankly terrified of these eyes. And so close to the camp...

"Ash!" Ash heard Serena call out to him. "Ash, come on! The stew is nearly done anyway, come on!"

The red eyes dimmed themselves, and Ash regained the use of his body again. He instantly began breathing again, quickly and repeatedly taking in gulps of breath. The logs dropped in a noisy clutter as Ash fell to his knees, weak from... Whatever had just happened. His body had all the energy drained from him. Ash wasn't one to scare easy, but there was no denying it. That had scared him. And his joints were wobbling, making it difficult for him to stand, or even kneel. His cap fell off as he bent over and panted. His breathing was heavy. Looking back at the eyes...

They were gone.

"Ash?" Serena called him again. "Are you okay out there?"

Ash quickly found his voice, clearing his throat and stalling back. "Y-Yeah, yeah, I'm... I'm okay... Just tripped, that's all." He stuttered, trying to put on as convincing a front as he possibly could. He picked up the logs slowly, before dragging himself and his things back to camp. Chills down his spine, and sweat on his face and arms, and lungs empty of oxygen, he could only ask one question. "What... The hell was that?..."

* * *

Ash sat in front of the fire, staring into it intensely. He hadn't even said a word since he had arrived back. Not about what he had seen. He hadn't wanted to worry anyone here, especially not the paranoid Serena.

Looking back, he wondered what he had witnessed. Replaying it in his head, whatever had been there had refused to reveal itself to him, running at the first sign of outside intervention. Ash only had a few ideas what it could have been.

It seemed likely to Ash that it was a Pokèmon, one that used fear tactics to keep intruders out of its territory. Ash just happened to walk into its territory, and that's what happened. The campsite might just be out of the Pokemon's territory. Ash hadn't seen anything like that since he returned, which backed up his theory. What worried Ash about this one though was that it was unlikely. Pikachu had seen it too. There wasn't any chance it was a trick of the eyes if it happened for both of them simultaneously.

There was, however, a more, sinister possibility.

For all Ash had mocked the rumours surrounding the forest, what if they were true?

Ash shuddered. But it would make sense. Ash rarely felt fear, and this hadn't been one he felt when he was truly scared. It felt... Almost forced upon him. As if made, designed to make him want to leave... Come to think of it, that would support the idea of a Pokèmon using fear tactics...

"Ash?"

Ash snapped back into reality, looking up, seeing Serena holding w bowl of stew for him to take. "Oh, sorry. Thanks." He said to her, taking hold of the bowl, and taking ahold of the spoon with which he would eat it with. Pikachu was already eating, apparently already having forgotten about what they had seen. Ash smiled weakly, rationalising himself once again. Maybe he did just imagine the whole thing. He hoped he did at least, but Pikachu seemed to have forgotten about it already...

"You okay, Ash?" Serena asked, sat next to him, looking at him with concern. "You've been acting... Really weird since you got back from gathering firewood... Did something happen to you?"

Ash smiled, thankful for Serena's concern. "I'm fine, thanks, Serena."

"Are you sure?... You look really... Spooked, almost." Serena pressed, asking him gently, not wanting to upset him, but wanting answers just as much.

"I..." Ash said, contemplating telling her, but ultimately, deciding against it. "I'm just... Tired, and hungry, I think." Ash said, forcing a smile. He wasn't completely lying either. He thought to himself, maybe he was just hallucinating. Maybe it was all in his head. Who knew? Ash decided to just try to forget about the whole experience, if he could that was. In all honesty, he wasn't that hungry, which was a first, but he forced himself to eat, thinking it might have something to do with his hunger previously. At this point, he was willing to try anything. It wasn't long until he decided to try and sleep, and get the night over with. But it took him a while. He couldn't shake the feeling he was being watched.

Waking up the next morning, Ash felt completely refreshed, his previous experience completely forgotten about already. As far as Ash was concerned, today was a good day to make a lot of progress through the forest. Sitting up in his tent, he rubbed his eyes, getting the sleep out.

"Mornin', Pikachu..." He said as he stretched and yawned.

However, he got no reply. Pikachu wasn't even in the tent with him. Ash raised a quizzical eyebrow. "That's weird..."

He quickly shrugged it off though. Pikachu probably got up earlier than he did and was already outside with everyone else. He got himself out a new set of clothes, and swiftly changed out of them.

He took ahold of his cap and smiled. For some reason, he felt really good about today. And for some even more bizarre reason, he felt really happy about seeing Serena today. It was weird to him. Why would he be overly concerned about seeing Serena today?

It was then he remembered the concern she showed him last night. He felt like... He owed her one. He was in a rough spot last night.

His face felt a bit warm, so he shook his head, and placed the cap on. "Focus, Ash. Now is not the time for... Whatever that was."

Unzipping the tent, he peeked out of it. What he saw was nothing short of horrifying.

Nothing. No one. No tents, no campfire, no nothing.

Not a trace.

He was alone.

* * *

Sorry this chapter is a bit late. I finally arrived home in England from America, and I've just spent a week getting settled back home.

So, what I'm going to say is, I'm genuinely surprised at the positive response this got. It seems that you seem to really like this idea and how Amourshipping is gonna encore into it. And I promise you it will come into things. And I also love how you guys are already trying to guess how the story will progress, that made me smile to see you guys are enjoying this so much.

As always, I hope you've enjoyed this, and if you have, please remember to favourite and review this to let me know you're liking this, and follow to see what happens next if you like! And as always, see you in the next chapter of whatever I do indeed, decide to make next. See ya!


	3. Chapter 3 : Fighting Phobias

Ash had to take a few minutes to register what he was seeing. His tent was still pitched, up completely and perfectly fine, with no obvious alterations to it whatsoever. It hadn't been moved, and hadn't even been touched. It had been completely untouched. But everyone else, their tents, and themselves, even their Pokèmon, were just gone, completely disappeared. Even his jacket, which he had forgotten to take inside his tent had gone too. The place was deserted, aside from a young Kantoean trainer who was severely worried.

"What the hell?" Ash asked, sweat dripping down his cheek. "Pikachu?!" He yelled out into the woods, hoping for a response. When he didn't get one, he tried again. Louder this time. "Pikachu! Serena!" Still no response. "Clemont! Bonnie! Anyone?!"

Ash looked around, nervous. No way. He couldn't be alone in here. That wasn't possible. This wasn't physically possible! How could they have gone without waking him up? He was a deep sleeper, but he'd at least hear all that noise! "Where the hell is everybody?!"

Ash forced himself to calm down. There were still outlines of the tents, so they hadn't been gone for long. "Is this a joke or something?" He shouted at the shrubs, half expecting, half hoping someone would jump from them and scare him, and then they could just move on from the whole event. "If this is some prank to scare me, it's worked, well done, you can come out now!"

Nothing.

"I know!" Ash said, feeling an optimistic margin of hope. He quickly started reaching for his belt, containing his Pokèballs, grabbing for Fletchinder's. "...You've gotta be kidding me..." Ash said, a grim realisation hit him as his eyes widened. They were gone too.

Ash was sufficiently creeped out right now. He was on his own, with only his tent and supplies. His friends, and Pokèmon, had disappeared into thin air, and were nowhere to be found. On top of that, images from the previous nights experience forced themselves back into the front of his head. He shuddered.

"Okay... This isn't good, this isn't good..." Ash repeated to himself. "Think, think... Right, that's right, Clemont gave us all a map and compass just in case this happened." He remembered. Quickly rushing back to his tent, and grabbing his bag, he held his breath. He honestly expected everything inside to be gone. If everything was gone, he was as good as lost.

Unzipping the bag slowly, he let out a huge sigh of relief when his map was there, along with his compass, and rations in case he got hungry. Ash had never been happier to see a map, compass, and food in his entire life.

"Lets see..." Ash said, unfolding the map on the floor, and placing the compass in the top left corner. "Okay, we started here, at the entrance yesterday..." Ash said to himself, pointing at the entrance with his finger. "We walked maybe... I don't know, roughly 5 miles in?" He quizzically looked at the scale, trying to figure it out. "So, if I head back to the entrance, I should be there in a few hours."

He smiled to himself. This whole escapade could be over very soon. But, thinking to himself, would it be? He had no idea where his friends were, or if they even planned to go back to the entrance. For all Ash knew, they had gone deeper into the forest. That felt unlikely, but Ash couldn't shake the feeling something ominous was going on. He didn't outline the possibility of them going deeper Into the forest. In fact...

Ash looked around closer. What he found disturbed him.

It would have been missable to anyone. An easy mistake to make, a very easy mistake.

The placement of the trees, the shrubbery around him, the placement of his tent, and the lack of any burning by the campfire whatsoever. Ash remembered seeing a large log in the woods,made per to where he saw the flowing red eyes, no longer there anymore.

Ash gulped. "Is it possible?... I've moved somehow?..."

Ash shook his head. "No, that... That can't be possible. The outlines of the tents are here, and my tent hasn't even been adjusted slightly... Is this an illusion?... Or..." He gulped, realising he was no longer on the path. "Something weird is going on in this forest... And everyone is still out there... Pikachu... Serena..." He fought the conflicting emotions in himself. One half told him to get out of this forest right now, find some authorities, locals, or someone better qualified to help him find his friends, and get himself to safety in the process. He was no good to them if he got himself injured - or worse - out here on his own. But the other half of himself told him he had to look for them, that he could just leave them out here like this, that he had to look. He couldn't forgive himself for not looking. And he owed them to look. It wasn't like he could actually figure out which was as the way out at this point anyway.

Ash made his hand into a fist, and rested his forehead against it. "Great... No matter what I do, I'm pretty much screwed, aren't I?" He signed. "I have no idea where I am, how to get out of here, what's going on, where the others are gone, if they did it intentionally or what!" He packed up his map and compass. Upon holding the compass, he saw the little arrow inside it going haywire. It was spinning in a circle, as if it was broken, or there was some magnetic interference. "Oh give my an Arceus damned break..."

Ash was stumped. "Well, looks like I don't have a choice anymore..." He said, looking at the forest. Somewhere in there, was either his friends, or a way out of this place. Either way, he had to look for it. "This really was a bad idea... Sorry Serena, I should have listened to you on this one." He muttered to himself, before walking off into the forest.

* * *

Staring up at the tall, peering trees, Serena slowly made her way through the forest, quickly glancing around at every turn. Whenever something made a loud, sudden, or spooky noise, Serena gripped tighter onto the blue jacket that she had found. It was Ash's jacket. She was using it as a shock blanket, and it doubled up as keeping her warm, and made her feel a bit more secure. Like Ash was there. But when she found it, it honestly terrified her. If the jacket was here, then where on Earth was Ash?

Come to think of it, where was anyone?

Serena had woken up in a clearing. On her own, and only the things in her tent were still present. The outlines of everyone else's tent was still there, but she was on her own, without a working compass, any of her Pokemon, or anything that cold her her at all. She was on her own. Well, that wasn't actually true.

"Pikachu? Can you see anything from up there?" She asked, looking up into the trees.

Pikachu was atop the tree branches, where it could see further around. How Pikachu had ended up with Serena, neither of them had any idea. It might have just been luck, but either way, the two were technically together, so they thanked Arceus for that. Pikachu shook his head from the branch. He didn't see any sign of anyone else. "Pika pika... Pika pi..."

Serena signed, nodding in her disappointed understanding. She reached into her pockets, pulling out several spherical shaped objects. "How is Ash?... And how is he coping without his Pokèmon?..." She had found them in his jacket. "Be okay Ash..." She said quietly, holding onto the jacket tighter around her.

The two walked along until they reached a clearing. Upon reaching the clearing, Serena leant against a tree and sat under it, letting out a sigh of exhaustion. Pikachu took the opportunity to rest too.

Serena managed to smile slightly at Pikachu, smiling at the cute little electric mouse Pokèmon. The first smile she had managed since this mess began. Then again, Pikachu did remind her of Ash. Besides the fact they were practically joined at the shoulder, Pikachu acted a lot like Ash did too. Reaching into her bag, she produced a few bits of Pokèmon food. "Here Pikachu. Have something to eat."

Pikachu happily took the few bits of Pokèmon food Serena could ration for him and ate them, nibbling on them to make them last longer.

Serena looked back Into the forests dense trees, wondering what they could do next. She didn't know what to do. She had considered using Ash's Fletchinder, sending it to look for the rest of the group, but for some reason, it's Pokèball refused to release it. She didn't know if it had something to do with it being Ashs Pokèball, or if it was something else entirely. She was struggling to keep her composure though. Her hylophobia was not helping her rapidly depleting composure.

"Okay... What do we do now?..." Serena asked herself, with an edge on her voice. Her plan had been to get out of the forest and find people to help her find her friends, but the more she walked, the deeper she seemed to end up in the forest. Using that logic, she had then tried going in completely the opposite direction, but that hasn't worked either. When she had found Ash's jacket with his PokèBalls inside it, she had felt some hope. Fletchinder would have been perfect, but for some reason, it didn't work.

"I wish Ash was here..." Serena said to herself, without really. thinking. "He'd have a plan, or something..." She sighed, and then, out of the of her eyes, she saw Pikachu had stopped eating, it's ears flopped down in front of it face, covering its eyes. Serena had forgotten for a moment that Pikachu must be just as worried about its trainer as she was. "Oh, Pikachu! I'm sorry, I didn't think..." She said, slowly trailing off, before stopping altogether, in a combination of apology, guilt and awkwardness

"Pika pi..." Pikachu muttered to itself. Serena had sort of recognised a pattern when it came to some of the things Pikachu was talking about, how certain objects of discussion had the same words from Pikachu. For example, She was almost certain 'Pika Pi' meant Ash.

"... I forgot you must be just as worried as I am about Ash. I've just been focusing on not breaking down in this forest..." Serena admitted. "I'm sorry, I didn't think before I spoke..."

Pikachu didn't really move much. It gave a gesture with its paw, indicating it forgave Serena, but it's attitude didn't improve much. Serena tried to cheer Pikachu up. "Hey now, don't worry, you know how Ash is! There hasn't been a single mess he hasn't gotten out of by not giving up, remember?" Serena said, trying to sound upbeat. Though she did admit to herself she was also trying to make herself believe that too. Eventually, she stopped trying, because she seemed to be making Pikachu feel worse.

"We can't keep worrying about Ash." She said, quietly. "We need to focus on getting ourselves out of here first." Though it hurt her to say it, it was true. They couldn't help Ash in the middle of this forest.

Pikachu nodded sadly. Then, it's ears perked up suddenly. Before Serena could even register what was going on, Pikachu leapt into the air, and fired off a Thunderbolt attack directly into some bushes. A large explosion erupted from the bushes, but Pikachu didn't seem any easier.

In shock, Serena jumped up, and Ashs jacket hung at her legs. One sleeve was still on her shoulders, keeping it from falling down to the ground completely. "Pikachu, what is -" before Serena could finish, Pikachu fired Thunderbolts behind it, and then to the left, behind a tree, and right past Serena. Either Pikachu was had just developed sever anxiety, or something, or someone, was near them.

Suddenly, a pair of eyes, light blue, but intimidating, seemingly piercing their bodies and into their hearts, appeared from a dark shrubbery. As soon as they appeared, they disappeared. They then relocated to another shrubbery within seconds of disappearing. They did this all around them, staring at them with malice, until at one point, a blue beam shot right at Pikachu.

"Pikachu, look out!" Serena acted without even thinking, dashing, picking up Pikachu, whose back was turned to it, and picking him up, dashing to get them both out of the way of the beam. Serena was just a little behind, or she would have gotten out completely unscathed. Her lower leg, and part of Ash's jacket were caught in the beam.

Serena let out a cry of pain, but quickly forced herself to push it aside. Biting her lip, she dashed right out of the clearing, through the shrubbery, and into the forest. Her leg hurt, but she didn't even care at this point. They couldn't stay there.

"The hell with Hylophobia." She said to Pikachu, who was still in shock at Serena's actions to save a Pokemon that didn't belong to her, especially to the point she got herself so injured and in visible pain, especially considering her usual actions. She usually had some instincts that directed towards self preservation. And at her actual injury she was forcing herself through.

"The hell with Hylophobia!" She said again, affirming it into herself. Sweat now running down her cheek, she swung behind a tree, changing her direction sharply. "No matter what's in this freaky forest, it's safer than in this place! I'd rather be scared than battered by... Whatever that thing is!"

She kept moving, fighting through her injury. "Hold on tight, okay, Pikachu? Are you alright?" She asked, glancing at the mouse Pokemon, still in a combination of shock and a newfound admiration for his saviour. Pikachu nodded.

Serena found herself braving the forest, purely on adrenaline alone. It was unlike her, especially considering her usual attitude to things, but that didn't matter now. They had to get out of this place.

She saw another blast of blue light, aimed right at her.

* * *

Again, I'm so sorry that this is out late. It's my sleeping pattern, that's what it is. I normally write At 00:00 till about 02:30 when I was at high school, but now, I have no sleeping pattern, I usually sleep once every two nights, so now I write in breaks during games before I pass out. Like, right now, I'm writing while waiting for ARK: Survival Evolved to update. (Awesome game, by the way, cannot recommend it enough. Favourite game of all year, no question. If you happen to play it, message me if you wanna join the Tribe I run.)

I hope you're all enjoying the fanfic. People keep giving me suggestions, and their theories, and I honestly love it. I just hope the payoff will be good enough for you all. I know I can't please everyone, but I hope you'll all like it, and that it won't disappoint you.

So, I'm currently taking requests for other universe one shots. I can do a few, YuGiOh, Transformers, Fairy Tail, Sword Art Online, ect. As for pairings, it really depends if I like the pairing or not. For example, I can write fanfics about Fairy Tail for Natsu X Lisanna, or Natsu X Lucy (I don't mind either.) Obviously I can't do that with Transformers, for example. It's kinda impossible, but I can make a story up for you all. I might do that anyway. Guilty pleasures. So, lemme know what universe you want, and I'll see, and if you want a pairing, I'll have a look, see if I like. If I don't like your pairing, I might apply the IDEA to a different couple, so you could take solace in that I suppose. I'd like a bit of writing variety on here. So lemme know! Don't be shy, ask away!

So, as always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you did, remember to favourite it, or leave a review, or just message me. I might not reply, but I always read them, every single one. I get so nervous and excited seeing a review in my inbox, it makes me happy and anxious to see if you all like it or not. It's honestly my favourite part of all of this. Follow the story if you're interested in seeing what happens next, and if you don't have an account, what the hell are you doing, go make an account, you'll miss the updates. One shot requests are still open, as always.

I hope to see you all in the chapter I do indeed, decide to make next. See ya!


	4. Chapter 4: From Two to One

Ash wasn't stupid. He was dense, but not stupid, nor was he ignorant. He had picked up on lots of different things during his journeys across the various regions.

And he did not like what he could identify.

Based on what had been going on around him, Ash could only really conclude that he was in a fierce Pokèmons territory. A very territorial Pokèmons territory. Based on the tactics it seemed to use to keep Ash away from its territory, tactics to mess with his head, fear tactics, it was likely to be a ghost or dark type Pokemon. Perhaps a psychic type, though that seemed unlikely.

However, he still couldn't figure out how he had moved. He had first suspected it of being an illusion of some description, but he had come up with a way to shatter any given illusion. He had hit a tree, as hard as he could with his fist. Though it wasn't as moronic as it initially sounds. The pain would cause his to shift his focus to it, meaning his brain would shift from emitting the signals corresponding to the illusion, and would completely focus on the pain in his hand. Nothing changed once contact had been made, so while Ash's left hand was throbbing in pain, he at least knew we wasn't being tricked here.

That left Ash stuck. He couldn't figure out how he had moved, yet somehow stayed in the same place simultaneously. Tent outlines that had left him to believe that he was still in the original campsite, whereas the ones outside his tent now had either been artificially created, or something weirder was going on. Ash considered. Assuming the outlines were made by someone, Ash could only think of one question : Why?

Why would someone, or something, go to the effort to make him believe his friends had left him, but had in actuality, moved him? It didn't make any sense.

Then again, none of this made sense.

He lightly hit his forehead with his fist, as if he was trying spark an idea of explanation into his head, in a manner similar to that of striking a match against the matchbox to spark the flame. His head was capable of coming to a reasonable conclusion, but he needed something to work with, like the way a matchbox can't make a fire without a match striking against it.

"Well..." Ash said to himself, sighing, looking for a positive to to situation. Eventually he found one. "At least... Whatever it is isn't aggressively hostile towards me. Otherwise it'd be chasing me down."

At that exact moment, he heard twigs snapping. Not just one or two, mp but multiple, happening in rapid succession, and becoming louder and louder with every second. Ash glanced left, glanced right, before picking up a large stick, thick enough that if hitting someone or something with enough force, it would easily knock them unconscious.

Ash heard the footsteps as if they were right next to him now. Just behind that tree. Raising the stick up, and steeling himself, he got ready to knock down whatever was about to come around.

Much too quick for Ashs reflexes, the shadow behind the tree charged straight for him. In the one second before the two collided, Ash saw the shadows face.

"Sere - Argh!" Ash started before being slammed right in the stomach, knocking the air out of him. Falling back onto the ground against the tree, he struggled for breath, for two reasons. The first and foremost being the fact it had literally been knocked right out of him, and the second was also on their backside, staring right back at him.

Serena.

* * *

The two stared at one another for a few moments, registering the other in front of them. Had they just found each other, or was the other an illusion? Wait a moment, how could they just accidentally find each other like that? Was it a trick? They couldn't be this lucky, could they? But What if it was the other?

Serena didn't even say a word, but instead just threw herself onto the dazed Kantoean in from of her, wrapping him in a tight hug there and then. Tears of joy running down her face. She wasn't alone anymore. "Ash!"

The feeling of warmth from Serena convinced Ash all he needed. Despite having no breath in his lungs, he smiled and returned the hug, thanking Arceus she was alright.

"Ash, are you okay?" Serena asked, once she separated from their hug. "I ran into you kinda hard, didn't I?..."

"Urgh..." Ash grunted, adjusting himself so he was properly sat up. "I'm fine... Just lost my breath." He told the anxious Kalosian as he caught his breath. It took him a few moments to catch it fully. "Serena, you don't happen to have my jacket do you?"

"Actually, I do." Serena said, revealing Ash's jacket. One of the was damaged, but it was still wearable. "Your PokèBalls are in there too, but I couldn't make them open."

Ash took the jacket and pulled out a Pokèball. "Thank Arceus. I thought I'd lost them." Happily, he sighed in huge relief. He then tried to enlarge, by pressing the button on the Pokèball. The Pokèball enlarged, but once it did, blue sparks flew out from the black run separating the white ha dried alloys of the Pokèball. Ash covered his eyes promptly, and quickly out of reflexes, and made the Pokèball shorter. "They got damaged by the looks of things."

Serena leaned over. Remembering the blast the jacket took, she wasn't surprised. "Um... Can you fix it?"

Ash nodded. "Luckily, I picked up some basic stuff from Clemont, from his less... Explode-y type things. He showed me how to fix these during one of those. Speaking of Clemont, you don't know where he or Bonnie are, do you?"

Serena shook her head dejectedly. "I was hoping you knew... But I do know where Pikachu is."

"You do?"

"Uh huh. Me and Pikachu found each other rather quickly. Come with me, I'll take you there." Serena smiled at Ash. She felt so happy that she had found someone. And not just anyone. The one person she wanted to find, Ash. The person who made her feel better without even trying. She stood up, but put too much weight onto her injured leg. She felt an intense pain, and fell right back down

Ash quickly jumped up and helped be lay against a tree. "Serena, what's wrong? You okay?"

"It's nothing Ash." Serena smiled, cheerfully, but obviously masking the pain she was in. "I hurt my leg, that's all."

Ash glanced down and went pale. "Serena, you're bleeding. Badly."

Serena was a bit surprised at this. She hadn't felt any blood run down her leg. Then again, she had been focused on escaping whatever she had been running from for a while now, so she hasn't had time to notice anything else. She didn't want to slow Ash down though. "It doesn't hurt too badly. Honestly."

Ash looked at the leg and sighed. "You idiot." He muttered to himself, before reaching for his jacket. He quickly tore off one of the sleeves of his jacket.

"Ash, what're you doing?" Serena asked in shock.

"I'd much rather have you feeling better and healthy than a wearable jacket." Ash put bluntly. There hadn't been any connotations to it, but Serena went red in embarrassment. She felt touched that he cared so much. It made her feel really happy. He cared so much that he tore his own jacket up for her. It might not have been the intended sentiment, but Serena appreciated it all the same.

Ash wrapped the torn off sleeve around Serena's leg. He then tore off the other sleeve of his jacket and tied it in a knot around her leg, to keep the improvised bandage there securely. It would stop the bleeding and protect her from further infection in the forest. "There you go. I can't help you win the pain too much, but this should help make traveling more bearable." He smiled at Serena.

"Thank you..." She said quietly.

Ash then turned his back to her. "Come on, I'll carry you."

This time. Serena went full on scarlet. "Wh- Huh?!"

"Your leg is injured. I'll carry you, so you can rest your leg."

Serena blushed. She couldn't deny it. Resting her leg would be nice. Reluctantly, and embarrassed, she accepted Ash's offer. She couldn't decide if she was more embarrassed that she was being carried, or she was being carried by Ash.

* * *

This is only a short chapter. Sorry guys, but I wanted to at least get you something up. I've been busy in real life. I received my high school finals results, and I'm happy to report in English GCSE marks, I passed all my subjects, 9 C's and 2 B's, the 2 B's in English Language and another in Literature. If you're American, I think it translates roughly to a B- average. So that was a lot of stress relieved. I also got accepted into my first choice collage, and I'll be starting that in a week, where I'll be taking a games design course, and I might add Art onto it. In addition, I'm starting to write the screenplay for a manga I would hopefully one day like to produce. It's called "The Loyal Blood." And I've been working on it pretty hard lately. Imagine a kind of crossover between Fairy Tail, Fullmetal Alchemist, Deadman Wonderland and a few of my own ideas, and you'll have an idea of the story I'm writing. Regarding if I upload it to is another matter altogether. So that's been going on, which is why this is a short chapter. I've also started up my YouTube series again. First let's play is Transformers : War for Cybertron, so if you want to go check that out, you can message me for a link ( won't let me link them in chapters for some reason)

So as always guys, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Don't worry, I know there are a few plot holes in this chapter, but they aren't plot holes, if that makes sense. I never write anything without having a plan for it. If you enjoyed this chapter, be sure to favourite the story, and if you want to know what happens next, be sure to follow the story too. Reviews are always appreciated, and are my favourite part of the story writing process. As always, I'll see you in the next chapter of whatever I do make next. See you guys!


	5. Chapter 5 : Reunited ( personal extras)

"Pikachu was right around here." Serena explained to Ash, peering over his shoulder. "Pikachu jumped up the tree to try and get the jump on whatever was chasing me."

Serena had caught Ash up to speed while he had carried her. Ash hadn't mentioned his experiences to her yet, as he didn't want to make her freak out, but he was now wondering if these two different eye colours were somehow related. He wasn't aware of any Pokemon that could change their eye colour like that, so what it was, Ash had no idea. Ash had also been under the assumption that whatever was out there wasn't actively aggressive towards them, but judging on what happened to Serena, he now wasn't sure. But then again, that also, depended on if the two different events were by the same creature. There were too many questions, and not enough answers.

"Didn't you get an idea?" Ash asked, scanning the area from Pikachu. Anything with a hint of yellow caught his eye. It stood out in the brown and black of Blackwoods Forest.

Serena shook her head. "Just its eyes."

Ash sighed in understanding. "Well, I'm glad your safe."

Serena buried her face into Ash's back. "I'm scared. Where's Bonnie and Clemont? What happened to us?"

Ash sighed again. "I'm freaked out too. And I don't know either of those questions. I don't even know where we are right now."

Serena tightened her grip onto Ash. Ash smiled at her. "Cute." He muttered, low so she couldn't hear. "I'll protect you Serena. Don't worry about anything."

Serena blushed. "Thank you, Ash..."

"Pika pi!"

Looking up into the trees, Ash saw his partner Pokemon hopping down branches, before finally landing on his head. If Ash hadn't been holding Serena, he would have hugged his best friend. "Pikachu! Oh, thank Arceus you're okay."

Pikachu smiled, happy to be reunited with his trainer. His focus quickly shifted however, back to Serena, whom he hopped onto, expressing concern and curiosity as to why Ash was carrying her. After a breakfast explanation, Pikachu hopped onto Serena's shoulder, offering what little comfort he could give.

"That's odd." Ash said. "I don't remember Pikachu being _this_ fond of you."

Serena smiled in a combination of bemusement and embarrassment. "It's uh... It's a little convoluted..."

* * *

Finding a secluded spot, Serena told Ash of the events in full, unedited detail about the encounter, including her humble rescue of Pikachu. Pikachu seemed to have a newfound appreciation for Serena, which Ash certainly found interesting.

"Serena... I... Thanks, for saving Pikachu..." Ash said. "I uh... I don't know what else I can say."

Serena smiled. "It's fine. I didn't do anything special. I just did what anyone else would do"

"Pikachu seems to like you a lot more than I remember." Ash pointed out. "Seriously Serena... Thank you." Ash repeated himself, bowing his head to her slightly.

Serena blushed and waved it off. "R-Really, you don't kneed to say it so much! I-I was happy to do it! U-Um... What about your other Pokemon? Have you made any progress in fixing their PokèBalls?"

Ash sighed. "I'm working on it. It's weird. In any other situation, the minute the Pokèball was broken, the Pokemon would have been released from them, but that hasn't happened. I think the mechanism was beaten in, as opposed to out. I could fix it, but it'll take a while..."

"I don't remember you beeping so... Tech savvy." Serena said, a hint of teasing in her voice.

"Being blown up by Clemonts inventions so many times, you pick up a few things." Ash grinned.

"Clemont... Bonnie..." Serena said, almost whimpering. "Do you think they found my Pokemon?..."

"That's right, you haven't found yours, have you?" Ash said, realising that hers were missing, and also how worried she must be. "Don't worry. As soon as these PokèBalls are fixed, I'll send Fletchinder out to look for them. Besides, Braixen and Pancham are tough. You're their trainer after all. They might not be the strongest physically, but their performance moves are sure to confuse any opponents they come across."

Serena smiled weakly at Ash. "You're right..."

Ash put his hand on her shoulder. "I promise. I'll find them. Then I'll find everyone else, and get us out of here."

Serena smiled weakly again. "Thank you..." Inwardly though, she cursed herself for being so pathetic.'I... I wish there was something I could do... I don't want to rely on Ash all the time...'

Ash glanced around the place, checking that nothing was watching them. "Y'know, there's a bit of an issue here..."

"What's that?"

"Sleep."

Serena looked puzzled. "How so?"

"Think about it." Ash said, presenting his bag to her. "To start with, we've only got one tent between us. Now, I don't mind sleeping outside." Ash lied. Truth be told, he would have slept anywhere that wasn't in the open woods. "But that's beside the point. When we got split, everything within our tents was with us, but the others were gone, along with everything in their tents."

Serena clicked into what Ash was saying and shuddered. "What's to say it won't happen again?..."

"Exactly. But let's look at what we do know." Ash said, in a reassuring voice. "Everything within our tents at the time of our... Shift, was with us. If we take all out belongings with us, we should be fine, so if we make sure we have enough survival supplies within the tent or on our person, we'll be okay."

"But..." Serena said, thinking in another matter.

Ash went a bit red in the face. "Uh... I wouldn't normally ask this, but, uh... Do you mind if we uh... Share a tent?"

Serena went full on scarlet. The only tent they had between them was small. Very small. In normal scenarios, it would fit one person into it, getting two people to fit in would be a stretch.

"I - I mean! Think about it!" Ash said, way too loud for his own preference. "W-We know that everything within a tent stays together! So if we stay in the same tent we should stick together!"

Serena blushed. Truth be told, that logic made perfect sense, but that aside, she had wanted to stay in a tent with Ash completely regardless of if the logic was there or not. She was freaked out, and Ash comforted her. Staying so close to the person she had admired for so long... She blushed at the thought again. She simply nodded at Ash, signalling her agreement with his suggestion.

* * *

I know this is short guys, and a day late, I know, but I have just started college the day this is coming out, and I finally have my timetable. I'll be spending all day Monday through Wednesday at college, and I'll have Thursday and Friday off. Seeing as I'm doing a BTEC Extended Diploma, I'll spend some of those days of coursework, but I'll have more time to write now for you guys now that things are starting to calm down in my life : D

Speaking of writing, I have a question I really need an answer from you guys. I have chapter one of my own original story finished. It's called The Loyal Blood, but I'm debating putting it on . I've asked people, about five, and they all say they like it, so I want to know - if I published The Loyal Blood, would you guys read it? It's a story I'd like to be made into a manga someday. I put lots of work into it, and I'm really proud of the characters, and I like the story I have so far. Usually, I am humble. I recognise that is a trait of mine, despite me saying it kind of implying I'm not humble, but I do acknowledge I'm a humble person by nature, so understand how much I am proud of this story for me to want to show it to you guys. So, if you guys want to read it, just let me know, it would mean the world to just know if you think I should publish it, or just hold onto it. If you're worried I won't manage to update my Pokemon fanfics as much, don't worry, I managed this chapter while writing the chapter of my story this past week. It's 5600 words long. I'll leave an extract of it for you guys here. If you were only here for the chapter of Alone, you can leave now if you want, that's completely fine. I hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading ^_^ Hope I see you next time I update!

If your interested in the story, I give you the prelude of, The Loyal Blood.

* * *

Carrying a blood stained knife in his hands, Clover ran down the dim lit streets, forcing aside any pedestrians at knife point, shoving them out of the way, regardless of age or gender. He was sweating heavily underneath his black beanie hat, and his legs were becoming sore, due to all his running. But he couldn't allow himself to stop. To stop would mean certain death. Or worse. It had been at least 15 minutes, and he still couldn't get away. He caught his breath, and looked back the way he came.

Nothing. But he was still there.

He ducked down into an alleyway, hoping to get out of the light, so his pursuer would loose him. Stepping over a ripped open trash bag, he turned the corner, only to be blocked by a dead end. On the wall, an eerie message was painted, and Clover knew it was for him. From his peruser. The message plattered in blood.

Surrender.

"Crap!" Clover swore, gripping the knife tighter, feeling the blood run onto his hands. There was no way "This ain't how I'm going down! I ain't goin' back, you hear me you freak? I ain't goin' anywhere!"

He was responded with silence. He heart a nearby cat meow, and began hearing the claws against the plastic trash bag, trying to get at something loose. That aside, a thick tension filled the air, which made Clover mop his brow.

"You come anywhere near me, and I'll cut out your beating heart, you hear me?!" Clover yelled aloud, shattering that already built up tension. Every second Clover heart his heart beat reminded him he was still alive, and had to remain that way. Once he couldn't hear that noise, he was dead. It was a bit of a game of cat and mouse. He had played this game so many times. The only difference this time was that he was the mouse. He thought to himself that this was what they all felt when he chased them down. Yuki, Kazku, Mazuto, Hagaye, Ika, Koji and others. All of them felt this, and all of them were now six feet under! So many magic users were now laying dead underneath the Earths soil because of him!

Clover remembered the rush he had when he first hunted down his first victim. A teenage girl named Dani. 19 years of age, on her way to her friends usual meet up place. The girl was stupid enough to take the back alleyway Clover had claimed as his territory. What and followed was a 13 minute and 24 second chase. All the while she had screamed for help, calling her friends, her family. Once cornered, she had begged for her life, crying that she didn't want to die. But that made no difference. Over the next 7 minutes and 48 seconds, Clover watched her begs for mercy become screams of pain and terror. If you want to eat bacon, first you must kill the pig. So that's what he did.

She didn't need all those fingers, did she? So he took them. Each time the knife approached her, the same knife he held in his hands, she screamed in terror for mercy. But it never came for her. "You can scream for mercy all you like." Clover reminded her. "In the end, I have the final say. And I say, you'll do as I damn well say!"

Once her fingers had been removed, Clover invited her to call for help. But she screamed and cried in pain. He even offered her a message card, but without her fingers, she couldn't perform the magic needed, so she just broke down crying. She died when he rammed the knife in her stomach, and ripped it up the her chest, and left her to bleed out. It was the first in a series of brutally savage serial killings throughout Amhestria Hobè and Jeksonia throughout the last two years.

And now here he was, in the nation of Vaylore, being the hunted.

"Tell me." A voice echoed throughout the alleyway, calm, yet commanding. "Throughout your two years of senseless killings, you've only targeted those who can use magical abilities. I want to know why."

"Why else?" Clover grinned at the shadows, in case his pursuer was there. "Why can't I use magic? What God decided that you users of magic should be able to take my family from me?!" Clover shouted at the darkness. "Isn't that what you magicians teach? That to have balance between nature and man, within them and soul? The ways of the world must be allowed to run free?!"

"Save your breath." The voice stopped echoing, and now was monotonous. Several heavy footsteps were heard making their way closer to Clover "The principles of magic don't justify your wanton murdering!"

"Then bring it on, child! I'll show you the laws mean nothing to people like me!" Clover shouted, edging on his opponent.

"Hrm... Well, i do owe you for stabbing me last time. You laced it with salt, didn't you? It stung guile a bit. It amazes me someone as sadistic as you..."

Clover, feeling a lightbulb go off in his head, looked up. A clocked figure was falling towards him from overhead, falling fast. "...Hasn't been killed already!"

The figure threw a fist at Clover as he fell, and missed, as Clover dodged to the side, and the figure instead his the floor, causing cracks to appear upon contact. Swinging his foot around, and striking for Clover with his elbow as he stepped through, the figure attacked, missing again. The figure then swing a spinning hook kick, narrowly missing the murderers head. Clover made a swing with the knife towards the figure, but missed, and the figure grabbed Clovers arm, throwing him over his back, and into some trash cans. "I ain't got all day, and I don't wanna bleed anymore. My shoulder is still in agony. So if we could cut right to the chase and you surrender, that would be great."

"I'll never surrender!" Clover declared proudly, charging right for The figure. "Especially not to you magic wielding scum!" Revealing the knife aimed down in his hand, he plunged straight at the figures heart, connecting with the heart.

Upon contact, the blade snapped, spinning off into the darkness of the alleyway.

"What the?!" Clover stood back in shock, staring the the now metalless knife handle.

"Well, I was hoping to keep my ability a secret before until I caught you, but if I hadn't used my magic then, I'd probably be your next victim." The figure said, throwing off the cloak that flowed around him. "Lesson learned. Don't underestimate a normals speed."

Young, mid to late teens. A tanned skin tone, and blue eyes, angrily staring right at Clover. Long, Brown hair, drooping over his eyebrows and one eye partially covered. His clothing revealed a mostly white jacket, and a black t-shirt underneath it. A sword attached to his pants, standing out on his body, in a grey holster. On one sleeve, was the symbol of Vaylore, and on the other was the flag of the organisation known as The Loyal Blood.

"That's it... That explains who you are." Clover said, piecing it all together. A young Mage in an organisation who could rearrange his body like that. "You're Empire FePyro, with those scumbags in The Loyal Blood organisation! You're the Bloody Wizard of the Elements!"

Empire leaned on a wall, his elbow bent and he looked like he was about to push up from it. His look conveyed only neutrality, showing none of his emotions, other than a acknowledgement of reality. "Let's hear you talk bad about The Loyal Blood again, Clover." In less then a second, Empire put so much force on his elbow it snapped, sending his lower arm straight through the elbow, and the bone visible. Empire showed no signs of pain, but he did show signs of clear, unadulterated anger. Blood suddenly formed around his now readjusted elbow, blood in the manner of that of a scythe. A deadly killing weapon, attached onto a deadly killing machine. Empire covered his face with the arm, hiding his nose and mouth as he spoke.

"Come on!" Empire said, now expressing his clear, unrepressed hatred towards Clover. "You want a PEICE of me?! I'll rip you to SHREADS!"

Chapter 1 : The Loyal Blood


	6. Chapter 6 : Nightfall

Serena could feel her heart beating in sheer anticipation, embarrassment, excitement and hesitation. Ash's plan made sense, of that there could be no argument whatsoever. In theory anyway. And Serena was happy to go along with the plan.

A little too happy... That was the problem.

Just the thought made her flustered beyond compare. She had to cover her cheeks just to force herself to calm the heck down. It almost made this whole mess worth it.

Ash had kept watch around the small site they had while Serena had changed. He had become a bit like a Braviary, scanning the area down the the most minuscule detail, watching for anything out of place. Though he really just wanted to flop down against something soft and get to sleep at this point. He was both physically and emotionally exhausted. He had been completely worn down after the events of the last two days, with few breaks inbetween. Running, getting hit by lasers fired randomly from bushes and being separated from her friends was unsurprisingly exhausting.

She had rapidly changed into her usual pyjamas, and tried to force the rushing blood in her cheeks to calm down before stepping outside. She still had pink in her cheeks, but it was somewhat less obvious now. "I'm finished, Ash..."

"You took longer than you should have..." Ash muttered.

"Um..."

"Your leg still hurting?"

Serena nodded. "That's right." She thanked Arceus that Ash somehow managed to always give her a way out of embarrassing conversations, even if he didn't mean to. "I uh, just had to be careful so I didn't hurt it any more than it already was."

"I see." Ash said. "Well, I'm not seeing anything out here. It's been pretty quiet... Been kinda nice..."

Serena had to admit, in spite of both Hylophobia and the terrors around them, it did seem kinda nice and relaxing here. Ash being here helped massively of course, but the area seemed quite serene. There was a gentle breeze that made the bristle sway, and was light enough so it didn't bother the two trainers. If only they could forget about the cosmic horrors within the forest, she might have thoroughly enjoyed it.

"Yeah... It kinda is." Serena admitted quietly as she sighed.

"You alright?" Ash asked, with concern. "You seem kinda... I dunno, down?"

"Hrmm?" Serena responded with only half focus, her remaining focus on her Pokemon. She was so worried about them. Not to mention her Hylophobia wasn't helping her all that much. "Yeah... I'm fine."

Ash sighed. "Okay then... We should uh... We should get some, uh... We should get some rest."

Serena's heart pounded against her rib cage in a desperate attempt to escape her nervous system. She had completely forgotten about that for just a few minutes. "U-Um... Y - Yeah... Uh, Rest sounds good." She responded with nervousness flowing through her veins, and could practically hear her heart pounding.

* * *

The cramped tent didn't exactly force them to cuddle as such, but they were a bit squashed. They were cramped together to the point it was embarrassing but also somewhat comfortable. Sleeping top to toe wasn't really much of an option - they needed to keep their equipment somewhere, and neither of them really wanted to sleep when every time they turned they could end up hitting their head on a canteen or something during the night.

The end result was in their shoulders constantly against the others, and against the side of the tent, which tugged on the sides of the tent. Regardless, the two both felt comfortable. Extreamly embarrassed, but comfortable.

"G'night." Ash said to Serena. He was embarrassed, but compared to Serena, he was pretty calm.

"N-Night..." Serena managed to stutter out, too flustered to look at him.

* * *

The hours passed on, and Serena had managed to fall asleep. Ash however, had not. He was still thinking.

First, he wanted to know why his Pokeballs had broken the way they had. He thought about what could have caused it and how he could fix it. He didn't remember this ever happening to his Pokeballs before, and he wondered if it was common or not, and if not, if it was going to be an issue fixing them.

The second thing he thought about was the sets of eyes following them in the forest. What were they? And what did they want? But that didn't go anywhere fast.

Then he thought about Clemont, Bonnie, and the rest of their group. How were they? Where were they?

And the final thing he thought about was... Serena. Just Serena. No questions or anything.

He gave himself a quizzical look. What the heck was he thinking about Serena for?

As he thought that, he felt Serena move, turning herself. She resisted herself onto her side, and one of her hands rested on Ash's shoulders, and she gently rested her head on that hand.

Ash's initial instinct was to move her gently away, but that was pushed to the side very quickly. He saw how peaceful she looked, and just couldn't do it. He smiled at her, and put his hand on her other shoulder, and sighed.

"So, that's why."

* * *

Back from a one week hiatus guys. Sorry I didn't warn you, but due to OCD, I don't really like to upload an entire chapter in the middle of a story to warm you. This was something I decided to do when the chapter wasn't ready last week. Coulda probably just uploaded a quick note then deleted it, but hindsight is a bitch like that. College also helped me make the choice. Been getting settled in properly, and The Loyal Blood has also taken up a chuck of my free time. It's actually surprisingly difficult to make characters that seem consistent and also reflect the personalities you give them, without making them seem too much like every other character and / or generic hero, but these aren't valid excuses if you ask me. I'll be working extra hard to get you the chapters you all deserve for being such awesome people you all are.

I'll also be having a one shot idea that just snuck into my head coming out soon. I wanna get back into doing one chapter and a one shot a week, but it's a lotta hard work guys. Still, I'll do my best for you. If not one a week, I'll aim for a one shot every other week.

In case you're wondering, the chapters are shorter because... Well, I want to flesh out the ending just a bit more. I have a few general ideas... It's just narrowing them down into one proper idea that's half presentable. I'll admit I have perfection and confidence issues. Rarely am I convinced that anything I give you guys is good enough, but I will struggle through, damn it!

Anyways guys, I'm rambling now. I kinda like to give you guys a run down on what's been going on for me at the end of these chapters, just so you can understand my thought processes. At any rate, I hope you enjoyed your overdue chapter of Alone! I'll see you in the next chapter of whatever it is I do indeed decide to make next. See ya!


	7. Chapter 7: The Truth

Serena woke up to find that she was in the tent alone. Before she had the chance to freak out, however, she saw the silhouette of her crushes against the tent, which made her verbally sigh in relief. Ash's theory had been correct. That was a first for him, she though with an amused smile.

"You awake?" Ash asked, after hearing her sigh. His shadow didn't move.

Serena stretched and yawned. "Yeah. Yeah I'm awake."

"Get dressed. You're gonna wanna see this." Ash said, again, not even moving. Pikachus shadow only made occasional movements, like an ear twitch every few seconds.

Serena gulped. Quickly following Ash's instructions, she changed her attire, thoughts running through her head. She concluded, that either they had moved again, or, something had appeared in front of them. Not neatly dressed, her hat on a slight slant, and her red over-vest not on completely, instead, half of it still flowing behind her, and her pink vest wasn't tucked in like it normally was. Normally she could have done something with her hair, but this seemed a bit too important for additional glamour details. Looking at least something presentable, but not really, she climbed out of the tent, and saw Ash, staring in disbelief. When she realised at what, she couldn't believe it either.

Their location had changed, but this time, it hadn't been too subtle. Above them loomed massive pine trees, nearly black at the trunk, and dark green leaves. Each of these trees must have been hundreds of years old, having loomed over the Blackwood Forest for centuries. Their presence was intimidating, even to Ash.

Ash gulped. "If I had to guess, we're close to the centre of the forest."

Serena didn't say anything,

Ash held up a Pokèball and sighed. "I hope to God this works." He said, dropping it on the floor in front of him. Pikachu's head turned to see what Ash was doing. Quickly it caught onto Ash's plan, and made a verbal noise of disagreement.

Serena spoke up. "What're you doing?"

Ash raised a foot above the Pokèball. "I'm either about to save my Pokemon, or make one of the biggest mistakes of my life. Either way, we can't wait around on taking risks anymore. I've had enough." And with that, and a 'Hya!' As he dropped his foot, Ash crushed the top of the Pokèball flat into the ground, shattering it into several pieces. The second they dispersed, however, a brilliant blue flash, which then materialised in front of Ash. It was his flying type, Fletchinder.

Ash let out a heavy sigh. He placed his hand on his currently violently beating heart., and wiped his sweating forehead with his other hand. "Oh thank God..."

Fletchinder however, seemed both confused and annoyed that it's Pokèball had been destroyed, and confused that it had no idea what was going on. Pikachu tried to make a brief explanation, but that just seemed to confuse the fire - flying type more.

Ash knelt down besides Fletchinder. "Sorry, pal. It's uh... Yeah, a lots happened, and uh..." Ash bit his lips, trying to figure out how to say it. "It's a long story. Really confusing. But that's not important right now. Look, we've been separated from Clemont and Bonnie, as well as Serena's Pokémon. I need you to go and look for them. I'll explain everything later on, I promise."

Fletchinder was still visually ticked off, but complied anyway, and began to fly away into the forest. Ash picked up the shards of metal from the Pokèball he had broken. "I... Cannot believe that worked."

"What on earth made you do that?!" Serena asked, still somewhat dumbfounded by such a brash action, even by Ash. That was bash even for him!

Ash grinned awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. "Well... I've had Pokemon inside Pokèballs break before, but they always came out... So I was just hoping that that happened here. A Pokemon is released from its Pokèball when it breaks, so I just hoped that it worked when they were hit like that."

Serena had generally zoned out of paying attention to Ash, instead her focus now forced on the tall trees surrounding her, and, to be blunt, she was overwhelmed. She crossed her arms, so her hands clasped her opposite shoulders, right hand in left shoulder, left hand in right shoulder, so she looked like she was hugging herself. She bit her lower lip, and her eyes darted left to right, looking, searching, somewhere, anywhere there were less trees, no matter how exceedingly unlikely it might have been. Anything to get out of this sheer horrific situation.

"Hey, what's wrong with you Serena?" Ash asked, glancing behind him. "You cold or something?" When he didn't get a response, he simply decided that was the case. "Hold on, I'll grab you a blanket or something. Just.. Go sit against that tree or something." Ash instructed, waving his hand vaguely towards the brush of trees, already half inside the tent, grabbing something for her to wrap around herself.

Serena didn't move.

Ash reappeared a few moments later with a wooly blanket he kept in the bottom of his backpack, noticing that Serena hadn't even budged slightly. He was a little puzzled for half a second. Personally, he would have sat down or done something to conserve body heat. It wasn't as if there were any negatives to just sitting against a tree... Though it took him a few moments, he came up with a theory. He smiled gently, thinking about how much sense it would make, and almost laughed, not out of malice, but because the idea made her seem cute. However, the visual representation in front of him wasn't exactly cute. She looked like she had just developed shell shock, and it was kind of freaking him out.

Back to concerning himself with her well being, however, he asked her again. "You okay, Serena?" He asked, levelling himself to her height, trying to look her in the eye. He gently wrapped the blanket around her neck, so it would flop around the rest of her body. She gripped hold of it tightly, purely based on instinct. An added bonus was that it would act a bit like a shock blanket for her.

"Serena, you're uh... Kinda creeping me out here." Ash said. "You can talk you know. What's wrong?"

Serena tightened her grip on the blanket. She spoke so very softly, Ash had to ask her to repeat herself. "Promise... Not to laugh..."

Ash nodded.

"I... I'm Hylophobic."

Ash stared at Serena, who was looking away from him now, a little pink in the face. "...You're what?"

"I said, I'm Hylophobic."

"No I heard you. I just want to know what the hell that means."

"..."

"Uh..."

Serena was a red colour now, in embarrassment. "It means I'm scared of forests, okay?!"

Ash jumped a bit at her initial yell, but quickly relaxed and smiled. "I had a theory."

This time, Serena jumped. "H-Huh? Since when?"

"About 30 seconds ago."

Serena tightly gripped the blanket again. "Did I really look that bad?..."

"Yeah, kinda." Ash smiled warmly at the girl in front of him. "That would explain a lot, to be fair."

Serena blushed and looked away. "I know, it's pathetic..."

Ash shrugged. "Not really."

"Huh?"

"Serena, I bet you I can guess when this started. It was after summer camp in Kanto, right? After that incident with Poliwag." Ash said with a warm smile. "I don't think it's pathetic at all. We've all got something that scares us."

Serena just nodded solemnly in agreement, not really having anything to say, somewhat embarrassed and frustrated with herself.

Ash sighed. He walked over to Serena and smiled. "I'll tell you what I'm afraid of." He leaned in close to Serena's ear and whispered. "Two things." Ash said. As he told her, Serena's solemn face turned almost immediately into giggles.

Ash went a bit red. "Hey, I didn't laugh at yours!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Serena said, still giggling. "That's just... So unexpected from you of all people!"

Ash went redder but shrugged it off. It seemed to help relax her. "And the other thing..."

This time, Serena went red. "Wha..."

Before Serena could ask, she felt a flap of wind on her shoulder, and the talons of Ash's Fletchinder landing on her shoulder, using only one wing.

"Something wrong Fletchinder? You okay?" Ash asked, before noticing something about Fletchinders other wing. It was carrying something. Something red. Ash grabbed ahold of them. Pokèballs.

"Are these?..." Ash asked, showing them Serena.

"Those are mine!" Serena yelled, almost screaming in joy. She took them quickly from Ash, and released her Pokemon. There they were, Pancham and Braixen. Both of them groggy and somewhat sleepy, but nonetheless, Serena tightly hugged them, crying in joy. Her Pokemon were confused. But Serena didn't care. They were safe. That was all that mattered to her.

* * *

In the next three chapters guys, Alone will be coming to a close. This was just s little something for you all to enjoy, with some fluffy Amourshipping moments in it especially for you guys.

In terms of Ash smashing Fletchinders Pokèball... That's just a complete guess if that works. Technically it's released, like Jessie's Dustox, but obviously it's gonna remain Ashs Fletchinder. It'll just be out of its Pokèball for the rest of the series for those who are wondering,

One shot is gonna be finished soon. I'm still working in a name for it. And I'm still writing up The Loyal Blood. Still considering uploading it here.

Anyways guys, not a lot to talk about today. Life marches on. As always, I'll see you in the next video of whatever it is I do indeed decide to make next. See ya!


	8. Chapter 8: Surrounded

"Thanks Fletchinder." Ash said, before holding up a new Pokèball, and re-capturing his flying type. Fletchinder didn't resist it in any way, and the capture barely lasted a second.

Serena had spent a good, long time hugging and crying tears of joy with her Pokemon, who had remained totally confused until Ash had explained everything briefly to them, and after that, they quickly returned Serena's sentiments, which Ash and Pikachu both smiled at. The two were sat next to Serena, Ash, mostly to comfort Serena's newly - revealed Hylophobia.

Ash had spent a bit of the time fixing his Pokèballs. He had managed to fix Noibat's and Frogadeir's Pokèballs without having to break them open, like Fletchinder's. Truth be told, he surprised himself. He never thought he had the intellectual capacity to fix this sort of equipment. He knew he wasn't smart, but he had surprised himself on how smart he actually was.

He also decided it would be fine to let Serena have as much time with her Pokemon as she needed. Seeing this, just how much she cared for her Pokemon, warmed his heart.

Instead, he decided to brainstorm on the current situation.

They hadn't had the time to focus on the fact they had teleported again. They were deeper into the forest, that was something Ash was certain of. And the further down, the darker the bark on the trees seemed to get. Ash thought very carefully about this. On one hand, he was certain whatever had been causing this whole eerie mess was in the centre of the forest. It just made the most sense to him. If something was doing this intentionally. But this fact could be countered by the argument, why would up whatever was doing this bring them closer to it? And that was an answer Ash couldn't even begin to make sense of. And the honest truth was Ash would be much happier totally avoiding whatever the hell was causing this Arceus - forsaken situation... But, Ash looked at the map. The centre of the forest had a clearing. Ash had a theory that he would be able to figure out a out of the forest. It wouldn't even base hard. Get to the centre, pick a direction, and walk straight from there. Serena had a map in her bag. It was a landmark they could easily recognise.

Ash decided it was their only option. Perhaps it was just him being superstitious.

* * *

Serena found herself surrounded by tall trees and a thick brush. The dark bark became practically black. But Serena wasn't worried. Or even phobic of it.

Clasped around her right hand, was Ashs hand, leading her forwards. When Ash was next to her, when he near, she didn't feel any fear. Not discomfort. Just her and Ash. And Pikachu, of course. Serena was blushing, but she didn't resist. Rather, she knew she'd never forgive herself if she let this opportunity pass her by. When Ash had grabbed her hand and lead her further into the woods, she didn't say anything. She didn't resist. She didn't want to resist, anyway.

"It should be this way, right?" Ash muttered to himself, leading Serena through some interwinding trees. Tightening his grip on her hand, he lead her past another tree. "Stay close, Serena." He said reassuringly. "Pikachu, you doing okay, buddy?"

Pikachu nodded at his trainer, perched on his shoulder. "Pika. Pi."

"Keep an eye out, buddy." Ash said. He shivered suddenly as a cold gust of wind blew against him. Because of his torn off sleeves, the wind got to him more, freezing him quicker.

"You okay Ash?.." Serena asked from behind him.

"Yeah... Just a bit cold." Ash said, smiling at Serena. "Don't worry about me. How you holding up?"

Serena nodded. "I'm... Okay."

"Good. Let me know if..." Ash said, trailing off.

"Huh? If what?" Serena asked.

"Serena... The eyes that you said followed you... You said they were blue, right?" Ash asked, quietly. Through gritted teeth.

"Yes..."

"Okay... Serena... Don't panic..."

"...What's going on?"

"They're here. Behind us."

Serena froze. Her eyes widened. Any sudden movements from her stopped immediately. "How..." Her voice had gone quiet too. "How close?..."

"The tree we just passed..." Ash said, quietly. Serena could see sweat drip from his brow. "About 10 metres."

Serena fought every single instinct she had to turn around, or to scream, reach for her Pokèballs, or anything she would normally do.

Behind Ash, she saw something that terrified her.

"Ash... There are red eyes behind you..."

Ash gritted his teeth so hard Serena heard the scrape of his teeth against one another. Her swore, and gulped. "Yeah, about that... Did I forget to mention that?"

Serena slowly made her way closer to Ash, so their back were against one another's. One by one, a set of blue or red eyes pierced through the shrubbery and brushes. They were surrounded.

* * *

Well then guys, next chapter, thing shall finally be revealed. I've gone through the drafts a lot, and found one I like with it still being somewhat eerie, while still remaining Amourshipping focused and fluffy at times. It might be a little anti climactic for some of you guys, I'll admit. It might even be predictable or predicted by some of you. Some of you have come VERY close with your theories. If you re-read the whole story, it's possible you might find some of the hidden clues I left for you all. They are pretty obscure,I'll admit, but they are there. I'd love to hear a couple of you guys' theories before next week. ; )

But at any rate, I'd like to answer a couple of questions that stuck out to me.

The first one was, I'm almost certain, a complete joke.

"Good story, but why is there so much Amourshipping? It's my favourite story by you because Amourshipping is less focused."

The story is CALLED "Amourshipping: Alone!" Exactly what did you expect?

"Why are you called 123Pearlshipping when all you do is Amourshipping"

Ah. Right, that. This name actually came from a Pearlshipping YouTube channel I did way back. I've wanted to go back and do some stuff on it, but I never got the chance. Not die to a lack of motivation, but due to Pearlshipping not really being my ship much anymore. In terms of Pokemon ships, it's still way up there at number three, number two bang Serena X Shauna (Judge me. Serena's cute AF no matter who the hell she's with. These two just have some cute interactions. I have yuri ships I like. Bite me, haters.) in terms of ships overall, Peaelshippings at, like, number 5, taken over by ships like Nali, Nalu... And that's kinda it. (Man, I've been watching way too much Fairy Tail '-')

At any rate guys, I still working on stories for you all. Don't worry, I'll keep you guys updated for a long time ^_^

As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and of you did, follow and fav, you know the drill by now if you made it this far ^_^ Hope to see you next time. See ya!


	9. Chapter 9: The Truth

The eyes glowed, surrounding them in a circle. Ash kept Serena as close to him as he could, in what would have been an intimate embrace in any other situation. Ash's goal was to protect her, no matter what. He had no idea what was going on, or what they had done to anger... These, as ridiculous as it sounded, seemingly sentient eyes. Ash could practically taste bloodlust in the air. This time was different than the other encounters. The others had been warnings. This was more a pack sense of an enemy invading their territory with malice. The de facto instinct was absolute - Terminate the intruders.

To put it simply - Their lives were in immediate danger.

Ash rattled every cell in his brain. It made no sense! Bringing us here into their territory for them to angrily attack them? Then why bother with the warnings? What was the point? Why not just terminate them earlier when they had the more opportunistic attack if they wanted to take the two of them out?

'Is this it?' Serena thought to herself, images of impending doom entering her disturbingly vivid mind. She had no idea. No idea what these eyes were, what they were from, if they were hostile or not. There was only one thing she could think of though, pathetic as it may be.

If this was indeed the end, She had only one regret. And the way to rectify it was currently holding onto her as she thought.

"Ash?..." She spoke, quietly.

Ash was glancing left from right, looking, searching for some sort of opening, to no avail. He visually gritted his teeth once he realised there wasn't one. "Damn! Alright, looks like we don't have a choice. Pikachu!" He said, calling his partner Pokemon ready into battle. His partner jumped down from his perch, ready to combat the threat again, but this time, prepared to combat the threat armed with the knowledge from their previous battle. "Hope you're ready for some revenge, Pikachu!"

Pikachu nodded for its trainer, as sparks crackled from its red cheeks. This wasn't like those times Pikachu would grin in anticipation. This was for real. All or nothing this time.

"Ash..." Serena said again, louder this time. "Ash! I'm not sure what's about to happen... So I want to tell you something, in case the worst happens."

"Can't it wait?" Ash asked, preoccupied with the impending battle.

"No, it can't." Serena said, looking around, viewing the hostile eyes. "Ash, we don't even know if we're going to have a later at this rate! Be honest... What do you rate our chances as?"

At that moment, the two hear a growling, snarling noise rumble from the eyes. Whatever it was, they were certainly not friendly.

"Alright, fine, what is it?" Ash asked, still strategising. "I'm listening."

Serena gulped. As far as she knew, she was on borrowed time as it was. There was no time to hesitate. "Ash... I just want you to know, you mean more than the world to me!"

Ash froze for a second. Then smiled softly. "That so?"

Serena nodded. "I-"

"I gotcha, Serena." Ash smiled at her. "Looks like we have one more reason to get out of this, don't we?" As he spoke, his hand had grabbed ahold of hers, and interlocked their fingers. "You know, I gotta be honest with you, I really didn't think I'd go out this like this either." Ash grinned. "Looks like life works in a funny way like that, huh?" Ash chuckled to himself. Serena, for a brief second, thought Ash had actually lost his mind. But this was dashed almost immediately. "You know something though? I'm happy. If there's one person I don't mind going out with, both metaphorically and literally, it's you, Serena."

Serena blushed. And suddenly she found herself smiling too, uncontrollably. It was funny. Any fear or anxiety was now gone, in both of them. If this was the end, they were both going out on an honest high note. And if they lived, it could be the best incident of their lives. It was the few rays of hope that made their smiles grow. Optimism and hope.

Ash and Serena, using their free hands, reach for their remains Pokèballs. "You ready?" Ash asked her, smiling at her.

Serena nodded, and smiled back at him. "Yeah. Let's do it."

Ash threw his Pokèball into the air, yelling out commands for his Pokemon to immediately follow. "Pikachu, Thunderbolt, Frogadier, Water Pulse, and put everything you have Into these hits!"

"Braixen, Fire Blast!" Serena called out, doing the same.

The three Pokemon wasted no time sending out their most powerful strikes simultaneously, striking at the sets of eyes glaring at them. Several disappeared before the strikes hit them, and many others relocated, dashing to the sides. Several returned the with fire, literally, shooting flames right back the Pokemon. One went straight for Serena, when her back was turned, but Ash managed to pull her out of the way of the shot. In turn, she pushed away from him, narrowly pushing the both of them from a fireball that shot between the two.

"Pikachu, use Electroball, Frogadier, Water Pulse! Keep 'em coming!" Ash yelled.

The two Pokemon fired their shots, which landed behind the bushes. One red eyed creature was sent from the bushes in front of the two trainers.

It was a Pokemon. Specifically, a Houndour.

Before either trainer or their Pokemon could register it, the Houndour sprinted towards Ash, leaping at him, but was blocked by his arm, covering his face. The Houndour bit into the arm, deep, tearing into the flesh in Ash's lower arm, which caused his to scream out breezily in agony, before biting his tongue and gritting his teeth.

"Arghhhh! Get, off!" Ash yelled, pushing the Houndour face, but, due to its teeth having sunk it, it simply held on, causing more pain to Ash the pan it did to Hourdour.

"That's enough!"

The two trainers, but Ash less than Serena,Monticello a figure stood in front of them. The figure was a male, looking to be in his late teens, clothed in a long, green hooded cloak. He had black, long hair, which covered his left eye, and brought more focus to his one, red pupiled eye. He seemed to radiate authority and commanded respect.

He spoke with a deep voice, that sounded older than he looked. "That's enough everyone! Let's all calm down. Houndour, let the boy go."

The Houndour either didn't listen, or didn't care. He still kept his teeth sunk into Ashs arm. The boy walked, not at a pace, he simply walked calmly, and knelt by Houndour. "Let. Him, Go. Now."

The Houndour practically yelled and immediately let go of Ash, and bowed it's head to the boy. "Good." The boy said, petting Houndours head.

Ash grabbed ahold of the wound on his arm. "Argh..." It stung, and the Houndour had bitten deep into his flesh. Serena took ahold of his arm, looking at the damage.

"Sorry about Houndour. I can't apologise enough for the mess you two got yourselves into." The boy said, his hands into his jackets pockets. He then pulled out a roll of Bangladesh and threw them to Serena, who caught it in both her hands.

"Who... Are you?" Serena asked.

"My name is Difenda I watch over this place." The boy told them.

"Okay then, Difenda, can you explain to us what the hell we've had to go through, why we had to go through it, and why, for the love of Arceus, can you tell us what the hell benefit it brought anyone?!" Ash barked. He had, in one of the rare occurrences, lost his cool completely. At this point, he was totally enraged. It wasn't even the kind of angry he has when dealing with a rival like Paul. This was sheer, pure, boiling anger.

Difenda sighed. "Yes. Yes, I'll tell you. You deserve that much. Come with me." He turned around, and walked deeper down the path, into the centre of the forest. "I'll explain everything over here."

* * *

Ash and Serena looked at one another. During the talk, Serena had applied the bandages to Ash's arm, and now, she held onto it. The two of them followed the late-teenage boy along the path. As they walked, more and more forest Pokemon appeared from the shrubbery. Sentret, Furret, Poochyena and Mightyena. They simply stared at the two trainers. They seemed to be okay with Difenda, however. A Poochyena cub even rubbing on his shins out of affection, before being carried away by its mother.

Difenda lead them along until they reached the centre. What the two of them saw left them speechless.

"I'm pretty sure you've figured out those eyes following you weren't some sort of ghost or spirit by now. They were Mightyena and Honndour. They act as guards to this place. This is what they were defending." Difenda said.

The trees around here weren't trees. Rather, They were Trevenant. Extremely large Trevenant. They were rooted to the ground, unable to move. There was at least 70 in the surrounding area, the only thing different was a small cabin, in the centre of it all.

"I'm a Pokemon Ranger. Or at least, I was." Difenda explained. "As you can guess, my name literally means defender, and that's the name I was given when I joined the Rangers. A sort of code name, and I guess it stuck. I got sent into this forest to film the reason why people kept disappearing and then reappearing a few months ago. And, well, this is what I found."

"And what's... That?" Ash asked.

"This forest is a graveyard."

Both trainers gulped, and the ranger sighed.

"This forest is effectively a large graveyard. The closer you get to the centre, or any other... Well, tree, it's a Trevenant in this forest. Blackwood forest got its name due to its dark bark... Well, the reason for that is, the body of a Trevenant goes dark after death. Not only that, but their genetic structure then completely resembles that of a tree, which is why the regions have been unable to figure out why the bark on the trees is so dark."

"Okay... So, why the teleporting?" Ash asked.

Difenda sighed. "Well... Obviously, you guys coming into a graveyard is pretty... Disrespectful to the Pokemon, I guess. So, they have a bad habit of teleporting people around to scare them off. Psychic ghost types like Dusclops and Banette. Please don't hold it against them. They just wanted to keep this place safe."

"Why?" Serena asked, raising an eyebrow. She saw, behind the ranger, was a Banette Pokemon, dropping in from the Trevenant/ tree behind them, and seemed to inspect the Trevenant.

Difenda put a hand on the same Trevenant. "You doing okay, buddy?" He asked with concern. He seemed completely detached to the fact all the trees around them had a huge eye, and stared at him constantly. It looked like something out of a horror movie. The Trevenant made a grunting noise, which the ranger took as a yes, and turned back to the two trainers. "The reason is... Well, like I said, respect. I'm sure you've heard of the logging attempts on the forest. It feels pretty reasonable that the Pokemon not only don't want their homes destroyed, but the bodies of their friends and saviours ending up as someone's fireplace. The Trevenant that died here made the forest, which is a home for the Pokemon. The Pokemon just want to honour their saviours memories. That's my guess, anyway."

Ash looked around at the Trevenant, routed to the ground."And... What about these guys?"

Difenda sighed. "These guys... Oh, these guys... They're connected to the entire forest. They provide the trees with nutrients needed to grow. Only issue is... It means they can't move. It's an act of self sacrifice. How to put it... Think of the energy they give to the forest is their life energy. Once it's tapped out, then they die, and become the trees that surround the Blackwoods forest. Honestly, I don't know all the science behind it myself. This is mostly guess work." The teen sighed again. "Honestly, the whole situation is pretty grim. But obviously, we can't tell people, or this place would be like a tourist trap. Which is why we normally wipe the memories of anyone who shows up."

"But why not us?" Serena asked, glancing around.

"You two showed something that very few people do show these days. I've been watching you since you showed up in the forest, making sure you didn't die. And as I watched the two of you, I saw something rare. Faith, honour, and above all, love and loyalty." Difenda said with a smile. The very explanation made both trainers blush. "I want you to do something for me. If you follow the path we just came on backwards, you'll end up at the other side of the forest. I want you to give a message to someone called Kokoya. Tell her, 'Aaron is fine, and he'll be home soon.' I wouldn't ask this if I didn't think you two could be trusted."

Ash looked around. "Yeah... Yeah, we can do that..." Ash turned around, looking badk at the path. Before going down it, he spoke up. "One last question. You said you didn't wipe our memories because you thought we could be trusted. That's fine, but you've barely known us for more than half an hour. So there's another reason, right?"

Difenda sighed with a smile. "You're smarter than you look." He looked at Ash. "Same reason you and her came to conclude in here." He said, nodding at Serena. "I've got someone I care about waiting for me out there."

Ash nodded and smiled. "Good enough."

* * *

Ash joked as he and Serena walked out that they looked like they had just been dragged though the worst of a video game. They looked completely battered, like they had gone through a warzone. Ash's sleeves torn off, cuts and bruises all over his arms, and now, a fresh wound, wrapped in bandages. He was dirty too, covered in mud and dirt. Serena wasn't much better. The makeshift bandage Ash made with his sleeves were still on her leg, and had soaked up a bit of her blood. Both of them had bags under their eyes, and, put simply, the two of them looked like hammered hell.

"It's... Really depressing to think about, isn't it?" Serena asked, looking at the trees.

"Yeah..." Ash said, before winding in pain at his arm.

"You okay?" Serena asked, loosening her grip on his arm.

"Yeah."

"That'll leave a scar..."

"Oh well."

"It doesn't bother you?"

"Not really. If anything, it'll remind me if what we just went through."

"You want to remember this? I want to forget this ever happened."

Ash laughed. "I'll be sure to remember that. So you'll forget that whole 'more than the world' speech you made?"

Serena blushed lightly. "...A-Aside from that..."

Ash held up his arm. "Well, I don't mind the scar. I don't consider this a bad experience. Just an unpleasant one." Ash smiled. "But it had some good moments in it, so it wasn't that unpleasant. It's like growing up. You never want to when you're in the moment, but once it's happened, there are plenty of times where you're glad it has."

"How wise." Serena smiled.

Ash lowered his arm. "If everything that happened comes at the cost of a scar, I'm more than okay with it."

"You think Clemont and Bonnie got out okay?" Serena asked.

"Clemont's smart. I'm sure they're fine." Ash said, reassuring her.

* * *

Light. The two saw light. Smiles emerged in their faces, as they picked up their walking pace. The way out.

Both the trainers looked at one another and smiled at each other in joy. It was over. They were finally out. The two staggered along, tired, exhausted, but finally, the two of them had escaped.

* * *

Well. This is the second to final chapter, everyone!

So... I really can't talk about the story without spoiling the next chapter a lot, so, we have a issue there, so, I'll just talk about what's up next.

Next major fanfic is gonna be one I called Loyalty. I'm aiming for this to be arguably the best amour fic on . Yes, I'm that dedicated to this idea.

Controversial paragraph below. You have been warned.

A non amour oneshot on Fondantshipping (Serena x Miette). This was a request from a very close friend, and I damn well Intend to deliver it, but I do actually ship this. And I'm gonna underline this here - you don't like these two as a ship, that's fine. I understand it's a very unpopular ship. If you don't like it because they're the same gender, and that's it, then I'll make my stance clear - leave. That's it. Just leave. I fundamentally dislike you as a person. That's all I'm gonna say. If you really want to go in depth about it, message me. It's not right that I'm even wasting the people who don't give a damns time. I'm an avid supporter of sexual freedom and tolerance, not just because I'm of a disclosed sexuality myself (Demi) but because it's just the humane thing to do. And I won't tolerate any reasons for preventing someone from loving anyone else. I don't care if it's to do with religious beliefs or nationalities. Speaking as someone who has gone through severe depression, if your beliefs prevent others from being happy, you are worse than scum. So, hopefully we just lost the vast majority of haters. If you just aren't a fan of yuri or the pairing, that's totally fine.

If you skipped the last paragraph, I don't blame you. I hope you enjoyed, nonetheless, and if you did, be sure to stick around! I apologise for this being up three weeks late... One shots kinda overtook me there. Anyways, I hope I'll see you all soon. See ya!


	10. Chapter 10: Conclusion

Serena sat next to Ash as he finally took off the bandages covering his arm. She had been right. It had left a scar. She could see the individual fang marks from the Houndour that bit him. It was very clear. Thankfully, the need for stitches hadn't been necessary, but all the same, It looked horrible, and painful. "Does it hurt?" She asked.

"Not as bad as you'd think." Ash said, inspecting the scar himself. His expression looked Ill. "Still, it's not that bad... Could have been worse I guess..." Now that he saw it, he wasn't exactly keen to have it, but he supposed it was far better than the alternative.

Serena sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. "Are you sure this was the best thing to do?"

Ash tilted his head so his head was resting on top of Serena's. "Honestly, I don't know. But... I think it's the best choice we could have made, given the situation."

Serena nodded lightly. "Yeah, you're right..."

Ash chuckled. "Good. I'm glad one of us is certain."

"You remember what Difenda told us. We can't let that place become some sort of tourist trap, or scientific surveillance site." Serena said. "The more I think about it, we did the right thing."

"When you put it like that..." Ash said with a faint smile.

* * *

What the two had done was reveal nothing. Once they had managed to get out of the clearing, they had been met with what they had been told was actually a search party, as they had been missing much longer than anyone else had been in the forest. Clemont and Bonnie had both been with them, and Bonnie had tackled Serena with a tight hug, in tears.

Once asked what had happened in the forest, the two of them looked at each other, and responded with the same answer, in perfect sync. "We can't tell you. The forest is alive."

It was the same answer these forests were famous for making people repeat, again and again. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, the two of them had suffered the same kind of madness. Just another case explaining why you should stay the hell away from Blackwoods forest.

It had taken them a week to convince the medical practitioners that worked at the hospital that they weren't insane. When the only answer you could give to a pretty simple question was a religious - like chant about a living forest, it turned out to be extremely difficult to prove you're still sane.

During all this, however, Ash had managed to find an engineer to fix the remainder of his broken Pokèballs. The process had been relatively simple, and Ash happily reunited with the remainder of his Pokèmon. The female engineer had looked incredibly uninterested in her work, her eyes barely seemed open, and Ash honestly though she would fall asleep at any given second. Still, he was extreamly great fun to her.

"Thank you so much..." Ash said, biting his lower lip. "Sorry, I didn't get your name."

The engineer, let out an uninterested sigh. "I don't see what difference it makes, but it's Kokoya. And you're welcome." She then picked up an old flat sided hammer and threw it into a trash can, apparently having decided it had seen its last few days.

"Kokoya?"

"Yeah. What's wrong?" The engineer raised an eyebrow.

Ash smiled. He turned around, and returned his Pokemon to their Pokèballs. He then looked back, and relayed the message. "Aaron says he's coming home soon."

Kokoya eyes, for the first time, widened in emotion. Clearly she was in absolute shock, disbelief, like she hadn't heard that persons name in years. Tears of joy started welling in her eyes. Ash turned away and left the store before she started crying, leaving her to herself, thinking it best that she didn't weep in front of a complete stranger who had just relayed this news. Once he was out of the store, he heard the faint words, "Thank you." As she started crying out of joy.

* * *

"I'm just glad we're finished with all of this psychology stuff." Ash sighed. "I felt like I was going insane with people testing to make sure I was sane."

"How ironic." Serena smiled.

"Yeah." Ash said. "Y'know, I wonder what Clemont and Bonnie went through."

"They told me those two were teleported just towards the edge of the forest. They didn't even know about anything was up with the forest until they realised they were on the other side and we weren't there." Serena told him.

Ash sighed. "Lucky."

"Still." Serena said, lightly kissing Ash's cheek. "I wouldn't get to do that if we didn't go through that." She smiled and blushed.

Ash smiled. "Yeah... That's true."

"I wonder how they'll react to that." Serena asked, resting her head in his shoulder again.

"Who knows?" Ash said. "Hey, how's the Hylophobia?"

"Still there." Serena sighed. "I tried going back into the forest, just to see. I couldn't even step in."

Ash smiled. "I'll look after you."

Serena smiled, and snuggled into Ash's neck. "I love you..."

Ash smiled. "I love you too."

The two of them smiled. They enjoyed the time they had Alone together. They were released from the hospital later that day, and carried on their journey. But it was never the same. It was better. And neither of them regretted a second of it.

* * *

And so closes Alone. Thank you all so very very much for staying with me on this fanfic. I figured I'd get the finale up for you guys, since you had to wait three weeks for an update. It's short, but it's all that Alone needed to finish I think. This isn't like One Day Off, when things needed a long explanation. This was smaller and things went as they did. I quite like this small story, it was an experiment, one I'm not sure I'll repeat, but one I'm glad I did nonetheless. I'm surprised with how many of you seem to think I should be a writer for the actual Anime, I never thought my writing was all that good, but apparently you all disagree. So, thanks ^_^

Also, in response to the Fondantshipping topic I did yesterday, I'm glad to see most of the negative reception was due to the pairing itself, and not the same gender issue I had been worried about, granted, there was a few of those, but with any luck we've abolished those people to the wind. I actually got a couple of people saying they missed my human rights rants, which amused me somewhat. Thanks guys ^_^

So, in my quest to become a better writer, I've also been watching more and more Anime, and I gotta say, No Game No Life has to be the single best anime I've seen in a long, long time, and if I don't get more episodes, I'm going to find the animators and hold them at chess point until they do. I watched Oreguemi... Or however the hell you spell it. Translates to 'My High School Romantic Comedy." And once again, I'm disappointed by Japan's idea to shoot down the person who actually had a personality and crush on main character for bland, serious no personality girl. Yay. And people ask me why I think Serena is a good character.

And finally, I watched ParaSyte the Maximal. If you're gonna watch two animes from the last couple of years, watch No Game No Life, and Parasyte The Maximal, they are freakin' fantastic. I managed to watch all of ParaSyte in a day and I ended up with anime depression because it was already over. If any of you guys have any good anime, lemme know. I'm in the middle of an anime drought here :~;

All of this, I promise, will go to making me a better writer for you guys, and The Loyal Blood screenplay I write. I'm tempted to upload it, but it would be under the anime Fairy Tail, simply because that's the closest anime I can think of to The Loyal Bloods contents. Lemme know on that.

And finally, Loyalty will be uploaded in a week or two, so stay tuned for that one! So as always, I hope you enjoyed this story, and thanks for staying with me during it. And as always, stay tuned for whatever I update next! See you!


End file.
